I have to admit, we’ve done well with the weather this year. October was pretty warm compared to usual and it didn’t get that cold, in my opinion. This week, however, I got a bit of a shock to the system; I stepped out the door and instantly felt the frosty cold that seems to have been the norm since that morning. What does this mean? Winter’s coming, and the start of continuous cold days.

Now I am a big fan of Autumn and Winter; they’re such great times of year. Autumn signifies the changing colours of nature, the crisp leaves under foot, not to mention Halloween and Bonfire Night. Winter brings snow (half hopefully, half hopefully not), hot chocolates, snuggly comfy clothes and, of course, Christmas and family time! However, they’re also my two least favourite times of year. Why?

For you spoonies reading this, you’ll know exactly what I mean. Autumn and Winter mean the cold starts creeping through, and with that so comes the pain that goes hand-in-hand with the cold. Autumn and Winter definitely mean a greater number of ‘flare’ days. It’s even worse if you have poor circulation and, in fact, spend most of summer cold, never mind the colder months!

Autumn and Winter are the months in which my friends begin to wonder what’s happened to me. Why? I become a massive hermit; I basically hibernate for the majority of the colder months. However, in the situations where I do have, or want, to go out for whatever reason, I have a few things that don’t leave my side. I thought I’d share them with you, in the hope that it might help you guys. Most of you likely do this anyway, but never mind!

  • Hot water bottle. Yes, you read that right. I don’t just reserve a space in my bed for my hot water bottle, but in my handbag when I go out too! As you can see, I have both a regular-sized bottle and a smaller one. The smaller one is great when I’m going to be walking around lots, and I don’t want to carry the weight of the bigger one. The bigger one I take when I know I’m going to be sat down a lot; uni sessions (those I actually make it into), when I’m in the car a lot, etc.

 

  • Hand-warmers. These are great for putting into the pockets of your coats. Some of them can be cheap and not work properly but you can actually get tiny hot-water bottles that you use as hand-warmers. Best thing ever! Failing that, a more expensive pair are better.

 

  • Wrapping up. An obvious one, I know, considering everyone does this in winter but, believe me when I said, I’m bound to be the one wearing the most layers in a crowd full of people. I’m not just talking about the usual hat, scarf and gloves with a coat. I’m talking tights, leggings followed by jeans; vest top, t-shirt, sweatshirt followed by a hoody. Not only does this help protect me against the cold, I also find it gives me a little extra support.

 

  • Hot drinks. Hot drinks are my saviour when I’m out in the cold. Now, most people think that this is the answer to cold… hot drinks are supposed to warm you up, yes? Actually, that’s wrong. Hot drinks are supposed to cool you down as the thermoregulatory centre in the brain senses the hot and sends signals to the cooling receptors (a little bit of A-Level Biology right there, I knew it had to come in handy for something) but actually I find that hot drinks definitely do work for me. If I’m out and about between November and January, you’ll usually find a flask of some sort of hot drink between my hands, usually a nice cup of tea (who can blame me?!). It’s even better now, after purchasing an Rtic flask while on my American Adventures. It’s AMAZING, literally keeps my drink hot for hours.

 

Of course, these things won’t help everyone, and as I said, it might be that you already do a lot of these things but you never know when you might learn something new. I’ll definitely be taking all of these things when I’m off to see the fireworks tonight. I hope these few techniques can help you all, even a little bit. Happy Bonfire Night everyone! Praying for a cold-free, pain-free night for you all!