Ode to the Hot Water Bottle

There are a lot of things I have my granny to thank for; my pretty ok baking skills, sarcasm, a love of orange lollies and choc ices and last but not least, introducing me to the joys of the hot water bottle. I can still remember going to stay at her house and the amazing feeling of getting into bed and it already being warm, then realising I could barely breathe because the sheets were tucked in so tightly.

Packing my hot water bottle was an afterthought as someone had mentioned to me during the vso training course just how cold it can get in India during the winter months. As it turns out over the last few weeks it has become possibly the single most useful thing I packed. Delhi may not get cold by UK standards but the houses here are built to refrigerate. Perfect for those sweltering summer months, not so good when it’s 5 degrees outside.  Having left snow and blizzards behind in the UK I’d thought I might be completely immune to winter in Delhi, I mean really, how cold could it actually get? This morning I woke up and the first thing I saw was my own breath steaming up the freezing cold room. Last night I even found a way of keeping the hot water bottle tucked up inside my fleece so that I could circulate the flat and still be warm. Yes I did look ridiculous but I was warm. So for anyone reading this who is likely to be in India during the winter months, I'd recommend a hot water bottle. It doesn’t stay cold for long (or so I’m told) but when it gets cold it’s really cold.