Monday 7 February 2021: What my typical week looks like
This week we’d like to talk about what a typical week looks like for you.
As well as your normal routine, please tell us about any water related tasks and activities e.g. laundry, washing up, bathroom use/showers, gardening, drinking water/tea etc…
I am not sure how to spend only five minutes on this task. Whilst I shall try to do so, I feel sure that the result will be so incomplete a picture that a wide variety of contradictory conclusions would be equally plausible. (This following paragraph took me an hour.)
Whilst there is some variation for me between work days and week days, much of that is due to the reduction in traffic on the local lanes. Most days are interchangeable. A day begins with medication between 05:30 and 06:30, making my litre jug of (caffeine-free) infusion for the day, and my wife's pot of tea for the day. Two full kettles of water boiled before the start of eye-watering priced daytime electricity. I feed the cats and unlock the cat-flap, releasing them from their night-time imprisonment in the utility room. I empty the dishwasher, run almost every day overnight on the cheaper-rate electricity. I leave the washing in the washing machine, also run overnight every day, because my wife sometimes has to put the clothes through an additional rinse (which uses astronomical amounts of water). Then it is out for a brisk six mile walk along the local lanes. Back home again, I read the water meter, and then prepare my breakfast (slices of home-grown beetroot on slices of toasted home-made bread spread with mustard). Computer administration. Provided that it is not raining, I tog up for an hour of two in the vegetable garden, or chain-sawing wood for the heating. For lunch, I frequently make a pan of soup made with vegetables from the garden (today it will involve potatoes, chard and courgettes, with peas and lettuce from the supermarket). Then more computer administration. Mid- to late-afternoon I am back in the garden again. In the summer there is a lot (more than an acre) of grass to be mown in the newly-planted orchard. I move stored water around in buckets, sometimes carrying half a ton of water to irrigate my young trees. Until the farmer mended the fence last year, there were sometimes escaped sheep to corral away from eating my trees. In the winter I might lay and light a wood fire. Then I cook the evening meal, using as many garden vegetables as possible (last night: roasted potatoes and beetroots, broccoli and Brussels sprouts from the garden, but the carrots, parsnips and nuts were from the supermarket). I cook everything from scratch, which usually takes about 45 minutes, but on a Sunday this might demand anything up to two and a half hours. I dread the oven being on for a couple of hours because I monitor our energy usage very closely. Monday morning is the time when I record on a spreadsheet and submit to Good Energy the (split tariff) electricity readings, and measure/record the amount of heating oil left in the tank. On the other hand, I read and record the water meter reading every morning. My wife and I have baths early on Friday evening - a long, hot soak, with Epsom salts and Co-op bath foam, accompanied by an interesting book (important to have a handkerchief to hand in order periodically to demist my spectacles). The bath water is saved for use as grey water, such as flushing toilets. My daughter (disabled) is showered on Saturday and Tuesday mornings, and my wife and I shower a couple of times during the week, more frequently in the summer. Husbanding the careful use of time, water and electricity are important features of my day. After the evening meal, I might programme the bread-maker to bake a loaf overnight, and I might put soya beans and pearl barley to soak in order to make fresh plant milk in the morning. If I am not too tired, I might watch a DVD, but the chances are that I shall have fallen asleep before the end. My day usually ends between 22:30 and 23:30, with my various night-time medications, and brushing my teeth (but not leaving the cold water running).
Thinking back to before the pandemic, what would a typical week consist of? As with your previous answer, as well as your routine, please include water related tasks and activities e.g. laundry, washing up, bathroom use/showers, gardening, drinking water/tea etc…
My pre-pandemic week was much the same as it is now. On the other hand, the pre-pandemic weeks of my wife and daughter (who is clinically extremely vulnerable) were very different, much more varied, involved spending time at an arts and crafts day centre twice a week, paid carers coming to the house on weekdays to help wash, dress, feed and work with my daughter, so that my wife could work in the garden; make preserves (cordials, jams, marmalades, chutneys and pickled vegetables); knit, mend and sew clothes. Once a month we might take a trip out, perhaps for a walk along a seaside promenade, or visiting a heritage location. We have been in almost total seclusion and isolation for almost two years now. Our use of water then and now are identical.
Having reflected on a typical week in 2019 and a typical week now, what do you think are the changes, big and small, in your water behaviours, and why?
In your answer please tell us:
- What you think the biggest changes are
- What some of the smaller changes might be
- What various factors may have driven these changes between 2019 and now
The principal change in my water behaviour between then (2019) and now (2022) has been to monitor my/our water use using the water meter, recording daily readings on a spreadsheet, and accounting for every fluctuation. This was due to the mains leak which ran from about September 2020 until March 2021. On the other hand, we were always very careful with our water use, and assiduous about storing and using grey water as well as rain water. A question that has not been asked is whether our water behaviour is/was influenced by water company exhortations to avoid wasting water. Simply, no. Whilst I read those exhortations, our clean water use (155 litres/day for three of us) is far, far lower than average, and if offered the opportunity, I would be enthusiastic to have a small reservoir in order to be able to store winter rainfall for summer use in the garden/orchard. (Had we built our own home, which was the dream ten years ago before relocating here, then a reservoir was part of the plan.)
