The things we take for granted.

Nowadays we're starting to take the internet for granted.

I so often think "I'll look that up" and find out something I've wondered about for ages, or get info on a possible holiday destination, or just have a chat on GN.

I remember looking things up at the library, making phone calls, sending off stamped addressed envelopes - all to find out information that can now be called up in seconds!

Goodness aren't we townies lucky? Very rarely have power or water cuts. Even so I really appreciate the services having been brought up in a slum. Oh the bliss of a bathroom with indoor loo and running hot water. I'm retired now but still remember those awful days-yuk! The French have a saying "la pauvrete n'est pas une vice"-poverty isn't a vice. So true!

We also take electricity for granted, There's so much we cant do without it, even in daylight in the summer when we dont need lighting or heating. There was a powere cut the other day in our small market town and several shops and banks had to close as they couldnt do any transactions -computers, tills etc were down.
In my village there's no gas so all our cooking is dont by electricity. We had a power cut once just before family came for christmas - couldnt cook, iron, vacuum, use the computer (before I had an ipad and iphone!) or use the landline for some reason. I had to resort to making up beds - the only thing I could do without electricity.

I never realised just how much my partner and I took the fridge for granted, until ours packed up a month ago. We were without one for nearly 3 weeks, and it was absolutely awful especially as it was when the heatwave started.
I threw away so much milk as it was going off within a day despite keeping it in cold water. I dare not buy anything like meat or fish unless I was going to cook it when I arrived home, and any leftovers, I binned just in case.
We were like a pair of kids when the new fridge was delivered and installed and so far the novelty has not worn off. Yet.?

Having lived on board a boat for 20 yrs where every drop you used had to replaced by you. Then the joy of the taps freezing up in the winter. Although we weren't as bad off as some because we held 1,500 gallons.
Then we moved to a country where the water went off about once a week.
We spent 7 winters in the sun in our motohome.
I consider myself a bit of an expert in conserving water

Do you have fluoride in your water. You can't taste it but it can mess up with health problems and you can't use it with formula for babies. Most European countries have stopped but there are a few counties in UK still putting it in. Tends to be poorer areas the Public Health allows.

I use a filter jug and as others say it does improve the flavour. I find much tap water tastes of chlorine.
Some years ago we had a chap come who wanted to sell us a water softener which goes on the pipe just after it enters the house. He took tap water and put something in it and you should have seen the stuff that appeared in the water - huge lumps of calcium etc . I then gave him a jug of my filtered water and he did the same and was amazed that the water remained clear. I use Boots hard water filters.
But I must confess to buying bottled water to drink as I like sparkling and tend to get Badoit and Vichy. As a point of interest the French buy Hepa water if they are at all unwell - can be recommended by some doctors. If you want to use bottled water in a coffee machine or give it to young children you should use Evian as it is the purest.

We only value things when they arent there, be it water, electricity, gas, or anything useful or necessary to life, but the biggest thing of all that we miss is our own and our loved ones good health.

a couple of years ago we had a problem with both our gas and our water. i leak from a water main had penetrated the gas pipe adjoining [high pressure leak] and the water got into most of the gas meters in my road!
we had gas people around digging at midnight to find where the pipes went and we were without gas for several days!
fortunately it was when the heating was turned off as most of us have gas central heating although they did offer free electric heaters [didn't even think about the cost of heating with them].
in the end, after five days, we all had to have new gas meters and we had gangs of gas fitters and other workers running around the road for days!
we got compensation from the gas people and i think they claimed all their expenses [electric heaters, overtime, accommodation for their workers as they'd been drawn in from all over the country, etc] from the water board.
the easiest thing that was done was repairing the water leak which was done the day after it started - and the cause of the leak was ignored for a couple of days before it caused the "flooding" of the gas pipes.
the water board ended up out of pocket and they also had extremely red faces as it was all their fault for ignoring the leak in the first place - i wonder if they learned from their mistake!

Yes we definitely take these things for granted. A nice soak in a hot bath is lovely. Filling a kettle, steam irons, etc.
The nearest I've got to roughing it was when we went camping for several French hols years ago.
Therefore whenever I lie down in a proper comfy bed I really appreciate it.

I have solar panels that heat my water but my washing machine is cold fill only, so I fill a jug with the "free" hot water and pour it into my washing machine. Don't want to use electricity to heat the water when I have plenty in the tank. So far, no problems.

Sympathise with water pressure problems. We are at the end of the line here in rural East Dorset - no chance of a cool shower when the day was so hot - the water came out too hot or icy cold. Then husband took the shower apart - it had furred up! Off he went to get a new shower - bliss for a while whilst the neighbours are away and the pressure is up!

Me too. I had always drunk tap water until we moved here. Especially before a long bank holiday ... Yuk, you can smell and taste the bleach in the water. I have cheap Asda jug and filters, use mine longer than they suggest. One in fridge as I drink a lot of water.

Catwoman
I wouldn't be without my filter jug! Sometimes water comes out of our tap smelling like neat bleach and it tastes awful. I always use it in the kettle, the iron and for making ice cubes as it doesn't leave a powdery residue in the bottom of the glass. If I use tap water for freezing it leaves a very funny chemical taste.

Paddyann I buy bottled water, not for image but because the tap water around here tastes like bleach, I've thrown rice, potatoes and other veg away because it was tainted with a chlorine taste. I do have a filter jug now so only buy bottled water for when the bleach taste is particularly bad.

Best thing I ever bought was a filter jug for under a tenner. The difference in taste is remarkable. Filters last for months longer than it advises. Try the test of tap water versus filtered in a matching glass straight from the fridge. Just can't compare. I bought filter jug after being diagnosed as diabetic & started drinking lots more water.

When I switch my hot taps on, the water needs to run until it comes out hot (have tried to fix this to no avail!). I get so angry when I see my husband running the tap without saving the water. I have buckets ready, fill them, and pour the excess water back into the land (via plants in the garden). I hate to see it wasted when there are so many people in the world who have none. Paddyann I agree with you, why is it necessary to buy bottled water(?!)

We had a similar problem a couple of weeks ago. AW kept insisting the fault was fixed but we still had no water when we went to bed, but it was back by the morning. However, some homes in the village had awful brown coloured water for a few days afterwards.

Those kind of images were not far from my mind yesterday, paddyann as I eeked out enough precious bottled water for washing vegetables that I'd picked early in the morning. It was either that or a tin of baked beans.

Hand washing resorted to antiseptic gel and as for flushing the loo.....DH was alright - he could wee on the compost heap!!

There's a gang of workers planting lettuces in the field next to us. I've just been re-filling their water bottles for them. Lucky they didn't start yesterday.

the best illustration I saw of taking water for granted was a picture of a small African child carrying a large water recepticle on her head and a child sitting on a loo here ,the caption said "you use clean water for that " and given that so many people die from dirty water every day I could see their point.We are very lucky to have fantastic water here in the West of Scotland ,so many people who have stayed with us comment on it ,yet bottled water still sells at ridiculous prices.WHY ? If its image ,buy one bottle and keep refiling it from the tap.

You have my complete sympathy. We went through a phase of regular "outages" when we first came to the village and it was a nightmare.
Too true that we take it for granted.