h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's not about trolls, but I agree, they shouldn't win.

understood B'Elands all the same love

There's nothing wrong with taking a break either. As the saying goes, "sometimes one needs to sit down".

The central heating is broken it seems.

At least the electricity works, so I can heat the oven if it's not fixed once I return from work.

I thought you were going to say that you were sitting in the oven to warm up

That reminds of the guy who decided to commit suicide, stuck his head in the gas oven and turned it on.

Since the door was open, the gas didn't build up enough to poison him. He got bored and decided to have a smoke while he was waiting.

One explosion later, he was still alive, although minus his hair and eyebrows. At this stage, he decided that he wasn't fated to die, so he cancelled the whole affair.

The heating was fixed when I got home, which is good, because I'm not sure I'd fit in the oven.

Nice urban myth there, Gnomon.

Our heating broke just as it started snowing, which isn't good because it is excessively complex (apparently we were one of the first houses to use the "modern" version of pipes carrying hot water underneath each floor

Thankfully our walls are really thick stone, so it takes a long time for the cold to get it...nevertheless i'm quite grateful to hear its been fixed, four days after they started

Wow, that sounds complicated indeed. Glad it is fixed. We had 12°C after just one night without heating.

We've had no heating oil for a week; bedroom's down to 10° despite the electric heater And it's not even below freezing here!

Just as the weather got cold, our solar water heating system bust a gut. The overflow tank leaks. The heating engineers say that shouldn't happen. So we've had to decommission it till a new tank turns up. It's no loss of heat - we can still heat the water with the wood pellets system, but the sun has been shining gloriously all week and we could have been heating our water with free sunshine.

First world problem.

Although I was shocked to read just now that hundreds of people have already died of the cold here in Europe. Surely that makes this extreme cold more than just a "First world problem".

Something for you to look forward to Bel, I've managed to talk Gordon into setting off much earlier so we can make the afternoon meet at Manchester

Indeed I was shocked when i saw the cold wave going across Europe towards us, with the death toll rising, and thinking "even when it snows here, it won't be that cold"

But no, we've lost at least one, and maybe more to direct death by freezing, plus I'm sure it will have an indirect effect on many more