It was dipping my arms into the sink of hot water that recalled the memories.

We were a blue collar family.  We lived in a semi-detached council house with an outside toilet.  There was no central heating in my younger years, we kept warm with a coal fire in the living room and a Paraffin Heater as required elsewhere.

The bathroom was heated by the Paraffin heater, an appliance that seemed efficacious if you stood within eighteen inches of it, but that otherwise barely took the chill off the air.…