It's gettin' hot in herre

Well, "hot" is somewhat of an exaggeration, but anyhow: THE HEATING IS TURNED ON IN MY FLAT!!

It's an exceptionally cold September in Berlin, it's normally well over 20 degrees Celcius (~70°F) in daytime, now it's mostly under 20 and in the night the temperature has dropped under 10 degrees (~50°F). I've been f*cking freezing my ass off in the past week (excuse my French).

Although Germany is known for its pioneering in ecological questions, many buildings at least in Berlin are still stuck in the 19th century when it comes to being ecological. The isolation is often far from adequate, double windows are largely unheard of especially in old buildings (Altbau) and quite a few flats are still heated with coal (!!). Though admittedly more and more flat-for-rent-ads mention that the heating used is central heating, gas or distant heating, so something seems to be changing on that front, but nevertheless Berlin buildings are for the most part a far cry from ecological. The reason is pretty apparent: lack of finance. Berlin is poor as hell, its state debt amounts to 60 billion Euro (around 70% of its GDP!) – nuff said? The problem seems to plague (poorer) ex-Western parts of Berlin in particular, such as Kreuzberg and Neukölln. Apparently East Berlin was more widely renovated during the Soviet era, while the Western parts were left pretty much as they were.

So I've been very selectively searching for a flat with central heating (or at least gas/distant heating), even though it narrowed the options quite a bit. One of the main things that caught my interest with this flat was precisely the central heating (the others being location: in Eastern Kreuzberg near Görlitzer Bahnhof; and price: I'm paying 350€ for a month).

But boy did I wish for a few days that I would have found a flat with gas so that I could regulate the heating myself! Despite the temperature dropping heavily in the night, the heating wasn't turned on until yesterday, and it was free-ee-eezing cold inside. I've been sleeping with warm socks, pyjamas (which I normally never wear since it's really uncomfortable), a thick blanket and a hot-water bottle. When I came home in the evening yesterday, I was downright amazed by not being met by the burst of cold air, on the contrary it felt very warm. And I had just bought a thermometer out of curiosity to know how cold it actually was, hmpf. Well, it's now 21°C (70°F) in the living/bedroom and in the kitchen, where the heating is still turned off, it was 17°C in the early evening, so I guess the temperature has been around 16–17°C (60–62°F) at its coldest... No wonder it felt a bit chilly.

Oh well, now the heat(ing) is ON! and I can sleep without trembling like a Parkinson patient.

This was my boyfriend for a while.
Then I stopped being so cold and dumped him.