A Very British Obsession

It's true, I am somewhat obsessed by the weather - as I think many people in Britain are.  We have such unpredictable and changeable weather - all year round. 

Today we were back to lovely sunny blue skies in south Essex - although with a rather keen north-easterly wind, which may have dried the washing well but was a bit too chilly for my liking.  From Sunday onwards we are predicted to get another Arctic blast (this time direct from the steppes of Russia - nice). 

I'm not good with extremes of weather - too hot and I wilt, lying about moaning and, most shockingly, I lose my appetite (huge commiserations to those suffering 40+ heat in Australia at the moment - I think I may well expire if faced by that degree of heat!)  If it's too cold I get really grouchy too, especially if it's icy underfoot - then I start walking like a penguin, probably the worst way to deal with icy surfaces.  P, who is from alpine Switzerland, kept waiting for the council to grit the pavements when he first encountered really icy weather in the UK - he's since realised that only the roads get gritted here - presumably pedestrian's bones don't matter! 

I read this on the BBC news website this afternoon

'People in Iceland - a country currently in desperate economic trouble - have shipped jumpers and blankets to pensioners in England this week, to keep them warm in the winter.

A container of woolies arrived in the north-east of England after an appeal on an Icelandic radio station. They were handed to local charities in Hull on Thursday.

The campaign started after two Icelanders living in Manchester wrote to the programme, saying they were appalled by the numbers of elderly people dying from cold-related illnesses in England.'

This makes me feel rather ashamed on several different levels - not least because of the fact that the UK government invoked anti-terrorism laws against Icelandic banks and businesses in the UK in October - thereby forcing the failure of the last Icelandic bank standing.

Comments

[Wendy]

I'm exactly the same as you with extremes of weather. When it's too hot I moan and when it's too cold I moan. Being so cold at the moment I said to my husband 'tell me off when Summer comes and I start going on about being too hot'!
Not looking forward to the promise of snow for next week especially, as you say, the pavements never get gritted - just as important as the roads I say.
Hadn't heard that news about the winter woollies etc being sent over from Iceland, amazing.

[Frugal Trenches]

Oh it is so sad and really so preventable. Maybe when I finally get knitting I can make some blankets and jumpers for a worthy cause!