Flippin' eck. The news said something about this being the coldest spell of weather since 2001.

This may not be the coldest temperature on Earth and I'm sure conditions here are viewed as positively tropical for those who live further north, but having to de-ice my car TWICE this morning between 6:00 and 6:45AM and drive off with a -5 reading on the display did not put me in a good mood!
Brrr...


Now the best car I had for this kind of lark was a Ford Galaxy with heated seats and a heated windscreen (although the rest of the Galaxy was shite and I hope the thing rots in scrapyard hell). My trusy V-Dub Golf has no such luxuries - although unlike the Galaxy it does actually move from A to B without breaking down.

Cold Dash


Still, I'll be glad when the weekend arrives and I can stay in bed. Sitting in a car at -5C is no fun.

By the way, my top tip for de-icing  a cold car (which I didn't follow myself this morning) is to leave an electric fan heater running in the car while you sit inside the warm house having a cup of tea. The result is a warm car with completely ice free windows. I even have a mains socket located on the exterior front wall of the house (connected to an RCD inside) so I don't have to trail extension cables out of the front door.

Just make sure it's a fan heater and not one of those glowing infra-red things or you'll end up de-icing your car by setting fire to its interior.