Cold weather, cold water. Hello winter!

Winter is near. Two recent incidents have brought this harsh reality. Last week, almost like clockwork (as has been our experience for the last three years), our hot water system went on the blink. We had no hot water for four days until repairs were finally completed. Naturally this misfortune coincided with a marked drop in daily temperatures. In fact, last night the overnight temperature fell below zero in parts of London. Tonight we'll be enjoying a relatively balmy 4°C. I also read today that the daytime high on Monday will be a frigid 1°C.


I thought it somewhat ironic that as our heating system went on the blink last week the road outside the house was briefly too hot to walk on. The local council spent the week stripping and resurfacing the street. Mid-week I wandered out of our front door and almost stepped onto scalding hot tar laid minutes earlier. We now have a shiny black street without potholes and unexpected humps.

Camden Council, our local authority, spends almost £9 million annually on road maintaining almost 12,000 roads and laneways. Interestingly, council statistics also show that at least 33% of its footpath are in need of repair every year. However, my favourite statistics is the revelation that the council maintains 11,000 streetlights. Who would have known?