Monday, 6 February 2012

Anyone else cold out there?

Brrrr....it's 3 degrees out (C) and we sat there in an unheated station waiting area, nursing coffees while waiting for our train, and then sat on a train that was blowing cold air through the venting system. Even the locals were bundled up and complaining:

Send Us Your TXT, in the Metro this morning:
"Can someone please explain what exactly we are paying increased rail fares for when the train companies won't turn the heating on when it's minus five outside?"  Shivering, Liverpool

Why is it that warm heating is still such a luxury here?

Watching the train monitor in a cold train
station waiting area
Now back in the days of coal fires (when we first came to England), it was understood that if you moved out of the room, the rest of the house was unheated. Central heating didn't become a standard option till the mid-1980s, and believe me, we put ours in fast!

But not having grown up here and been exposed on a regular basis to cold rooms, rainy soccer days outside, short skirts/trousers in the winter – believe me also that we still haven't acclimatised (but I did spell it with an 's', so that's something).

You will never see me on the street going to a winter event in a mini-skirt, spaghetti strap top, and no coat. I mean, I can't even wear such an outfit in the "heat" of summer here. In our college town, you can spot town from gown immediately: even English from other areas don't undress like their Durham/Newcastle counterparts. Coats, scarves and gloves are the order of the day. That suits me just fine!


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