Things we take for granted!

**veggiechicken** · 13-06-2012, 05:49 AM

It has to be the car. Before there's an outcry, I don't use it for short journeys and often I don't use it for a week, but how else could I uproot myself weekly and move "house" with 2 dogs, a bootful of plants, wood, food and other paraphernalia.
And why is it, that, when something is unavailable, like broadband, or electricity, or even the washing machine, the only things you can think of doing revolve around using them?

**Jeanied** · 13-06-2012, 06:47 AM

I'm the same as you Bigmallly - I am lost without my broadband and my lappy. I turn the telly on but it is just background noise (and the cat likes to watch it

)

**donnakebab** · 13-06-2012, 06:56 AM

We are all pretty stuffed without electricity but on a personal level same as jeanied. I can manage without a car because work and allotment are both within walking distance and I can jump on a bus or walk for 40 minutes to see my mom. Wouldn't be able to take her shopping though.

**Bigmallly** · 13-06-2012, 06:59 AM

In gaining the beauty of broadband, we have obviously lost something along the way (apart from my mind) but I'm far too old to remember what it was..........

**taff** · 13-06-2012, 07:14 AM

I dont mind losing it now and then to go on holiday for example, or when I go other places. It's nice not to have the pressure of wondering what's gone wrong now? type stuff. In fact, I'd probably get a lot more done if i didn't have it, and use the library more

um...anyway...back to the question batman....[no, not mentioning the things that go without saying, like health, family etc...]
Onions...I couldn't live without onions, because they flavour nearly everything....and tomatoes, because without tomatoes, there is no pasta sauce, no pizza topping, no salad, no chilli jam, etc etc...
so yeah...onions and tomatoes

**Nicos** · 13-06-2012, 07:41 AM

As most of you probably know, I live in , and am doing up, a longhouse built between roughly 1630 and 1770.

I feel humbled everyday at the thought that there were bare earth floors, open wood fires for heating,and a well for cold water( which incidentally is still empty even after all this splosh!) and draughts everywhere.

Cold; damp; mud and draughts are not my idea of fun I can tell ye......and on top of that having to pull water up out of the well- or- worse still... a 45 min round trip to the river on foot to collect a bucket of cold river water for drinking/ cooking/washing/watering veg plants fills me with horror.

What do I almost take for granted????....hot running water on tap!

**Peas'n'Kews** · 13-06-2012, 08:15 AM

Well, as campers, in a tent without 'lecy and with water you collect from the tap, I know I can survive without those things and take them for granted slightly less.

It is nice to be able to go to the toilet block for the hot running water though!

And so, as I had to live without a bathroom (had a loo, but no bathroom) for a week while this house was extended, I am going with a bath or shower for my most taken for granted thing.

Which is kinda like hot water on tap, but with more soap!! (Thanks Nicos)

**veggiechicken** · 13-06-2012, 08:18 AM

Originally posted by Bigmallly View Post

In gaining the beauty of broadband, we have obviously lost something along the way (apart from my mind) but I'm far too old to remember what it was..........

We've lost the ability to communicate on a more personal level and to live a more leisurely life.
The internet may give us immediate answers and emails enable us to interact with each other almost instantaneously and internationally - but that can never exceed the pleasure that I still have when I receive a handwritten letter in the post. It may have taken a couple of days to arrive but it is tangible in a way that an email can never be.
In Victorian times, friends wrote postcards to each other and the postal service was good enough that you could invite someone to tea that afternoon and receive an acceptance before teatime. Those days will never return because we have email, text, mobile phones etc. which continually erode the postal service and may lead to its eventual demise. We are also losing our written heritage, there will be few personal letters to pass on to generations to come.
This is making me feel quite depressed

**Nicos** · 13-06-2012, 08:28 AM

VC- handwritten letters? hmmm...not had one for ages! (Generally from my mom or MIL- or Xmas/B'day cards).
With the increase in costs of stamps letter writing , that can't possibly be helping!
Post seems to be adverts or bills don't they these days? Certainly not something to look forward to!

I still have a few letters my OH wrote to me when we were both at different Uni towns.Awwwww.....

**lottie dolly** · 13-06-2012, 09:46 AM

Originally posted by veggiechicken View Post

It has to be the car. Before there's an outcry, I don't use it for short journeys and often I don't use it for a week, but how else could I uproot myself weekly and move "house" with 2 dogs, a bootful of plants, wood, food and other paraphernalia.
And why is it, that, when something is unavailable, like broadband, or electricity, or even the washing machine, the only things you can think of doing revolve around using them?

now there is the perfect answer VC,on another thread you said about spending money on????,get a hoss and cart,have a cab made fore it to you dry in the wet,you get good servis from it,work and manure lol,and another friend,

**Feral007** · 13-06-2012, 10:16 AM

Well I can do without my stove top - had to since the thing started taking out the whole of the house with the lectric. So I'm cooking with slow cookers and the oven. Interesting - never knew what you could really do with a slow cooker till I had to do it with two!
No box here as the aerial came off the roof in a bad wind and need to fix the roof as well as the aerial.
If you've been near me blog you'll have found out how I feel about water.
So I'll have to say ..............I loike to be able to flush me toilet I do!
I also like to have internet access no matter how flipping expensive and slow it is, so I can whinge about not being able to flush. By the time you got a letter about it, the problem would be fixed.

**Uber-Uncool** · 13-06-2012, 11:23 AM

Medication. Quite literally could not survive without it.

Car. An essential for me and in my situation. I consider myself blessed to have one.

Money. Have had nothing to live on the past 7 or 8 weeks. I love on a pittance anyway, but to have the very meagre amount taken from me through no fault of my own, and having to battle a quagmire of red tape to get it back, i truly appreciate what little money i now have.

Very grateful for coinstar machines. See above.

Food. Even the basics of milk, bread, cheese, eggs and butter. See above.

Family. A recent and ongoing crises has revealed once again, the fragility that exists in mine and i am glad for every day we each manage to get through together.

Yes, internet. It is a lifeline to many, not merely a luxury. For the isolated amongst us, whether emotionally or physically etc, it truly is not a strtch to claim it as such.

**julesapple** · 13-06-2012, 11:44 AM

Well said UU. Well said, indeed.

**Bigmallly** · 13-06-2012, 01:30 PM

Originally posted by lottie dolly View Post

now there is the perfect answer VC,on another thread you said about spending money on????,get a hoss and cart,have a cab made fore it to you dry in the wet,you get good servis from it,work and manure lol,and another friend,

Any translators available please?...........

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