The curious matter of the wardrobe fridge

The new place is working out pretty well. We have the high street right on our doorstep & even if it isn't exactly Northumberland Street, I have to admit everything from bridalwear hire to bicycle parts is very conveniently located. The number 21 bus goes right past our front door, so we've been making good use of the bus service into Newcastle (which is really entertaining, even if it is, mile for mile, around 3 times the price of the equivalent trip into Barcelona) and I've already mentioned the joys of rediscovering fish & chips and English beer, but probably not the fact that there's no worries about getting either of them home before they get too cold ;o)

It's properly cozy too, being roughly the size of our place in Daltmar and actually insulated. Bristling with radiators, it is. Even during the day, when they're off, I often forget I'm now in the freezing north and get a real shock when I open the front door. I've certainly remembered why the phrase "wind chill factor", coined by an Antarctic explorer, pops up so regularly in UK weather forecasts.

We have the heating turned all the way down and it still has us begging for mercy by bedtime, so the curious matter of the wardrobe refrigerator was a real puzzler.

Our bedroom has fitted 'robes running the full width of the room, kind of over the bed. It's great, providing more storage than even we can use all at once. The curious thing is that on my side the biggest section (running floor to ceiling, where I think I'm supposed to hang a suit) is as warm as the rest of the flat, while the corresponding cupboard on Niki's side is like a tomb. Odd too that the possibility of some kind of presence never crossed our minds, as we're quite prone to assuming this sort of thing in these circumstances. When we moved into our old place it took a good fortnight to realise that the eery smell of fish in the storage space under the spare room was actually a decaying lightbulb fitting, which fully explained why the mysterious apparition only appeared when we ventured in there.

Anyway, the upside of the chilly wardrobe is that we now have a copious overflow area for our hilariously small fridge. For personal hygene reasons, we won't be using it for cheeses and preserved meats , and it's actually a bit warm for milk and yoghurts and wot not, but it seems to be ideal for bulky essentials like beer. And it will definitely hold lots of chocolate... that's another long-forgotten aspect of living here: Niki's Mam's Chocolate Club. I promise you, you haven't lived 'til you've tried these. Worth converting a wardrobe especially for the purpose.

Btw, the indoor chill factor turned out to be down to the exterior wall it was mounted onto, which runs just far enough out from our neighbour's place to catch the full force of the almost incessant north-easterly wind. So it has it's uses after all.