Back in time....

The day before we left London (after our dinner of dim sum - Sean's new favorite food), we were able to see the apartment of the elderly woman who lived above our landlady. Her name is Alma and she is 94 years old and has lived in Castellain Mansions for 72 years!!! Walking into her apartment is like going back in time....nothing has been updated in decades. She has no central heating - she uses electric space heaters. I was glad not to know this until the day before we left because of the major fire hazard this is - and we didn't have smoke detectors or a fire escape in our flat (I assume they are not required in England). She also does not have a refrigerator...can you believe it!! She has a cold storage pantry type cabinet that lets in fresh air from outside, and since it doesn't get really got in England, it works ok for her. She drinks evaporated milk or powdered milk. She also did not have hot water until a few years ago. The orginal coal burning stove is still in the flat, but she does have a "modern" stove (circa 1950). She has no washing machine, dishwasher, or shower...but since she has lived there for so long in that environment, she doesn't know anything different! Near her front door is the orginal horn device that is like a doorbell - the person downstairs would blow into the horn to let her know they are there...they would talk into a pipe that goes only to Alma's flat so she would know who it was, and she would go down to let them in. She now has the buzzer system, but the old system is still intact. Her flat should be saved in a museum or something!