I must admit that I'm a bit disappointed that we haven't had any of the snow that you guys have had there, especially with all the cold temps we've had. Went to the tip on Saturday morning, two trips and it was -4 at 9.30am when we started and the tip is on the top of a very exposed hill, god knows what the wind chill factor was but it certainly felt a bit fresh. I looked good as usual in old jeans and trainers, yellow suede working gloves, old green coat and purple hat. My glasses steamed up as soon as I got back in the house, which always leaves me with the dilemma of leaving them on and not being able to see anything or taking them off and not being able to see anything.

It's so cold the front door key snapped in half whilst in the lock the other day. I'd been out with the girls so we were trying to get into the house. Fortunately for us, like most other things out here, the lock is crap anyway - you don't get 'yale' locks over here, it's the type which you have to remember to lock when you leave the house and go to bed at night, plus you can have a key in one side of the door and still be able to use a key in the other side. This was to our advantage as Adrian happened to be inside the house at the time, although at the back, so after several hours banging on the windows he finally appeared and was able to unlock the door from the inside with the spare key.

The pipes in the house keep freezing, dad has re-routed them and wrapped insulation around the parts he can get to, there's also an old duvet over them now, but they keep freezing up. Just hoping that they don't burst, because it looks like they're freezing up in a place we can't get to. The fire's been on every day lately, eating through our meagre wood supply and I've even had to increase the amount the heating comes on to nearly five hours a day and hang the cost of the gas...