Reasons to be Cheerful – Caribbean Air

We love to talk about the weather, us Brits. It’s true, you know. Just ask any American tourist! This blog is basically evidence, let’s face it. I spend almost as much time talking about the weather as I do my shoes and my dog. We also love to exaggerate about the weather. Like, crazily so. Remember that record snowfall that was set to bring the country to a standstill last month? Um, no, me neither, because as much as the papers wanted us to believe we were going to wake up to 10 foot snow drift in January, it didn’t happen. It never happens, actually. So I wasn’t expecting much today when I saw all the headlines screaming that today was going to be the ‘hottest February day for 160 years’.

Guess what?

It wasn’t hot. It was technically true this time though. I think ‘hot’ might have been a misleading way to describe it, but then, ‘the most pleasantly not freezing February day in 160 years’ doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, does it?? I also loved the way Carol on BBC Breakfast explained that we had ‘imported’ the warm air from the Caribbean today, as though this was an intentional exercise. It would be nice if we could import some of that warm air a little more often really, wouldn’t it? But alas, no, it’s back to Wintery weather next week apparently (or is it?? Does anyone really even know anymore?!).

All jokes aside, it was, in fact, very temperate (Temperate. What a great word. I feel a bit like a Jane Austen heroine writing home to her family from her trip away to a gothic castle, saying that. I kind of like it. I might try talking like that a bit more often, you know, just to mix it up a bit!). I was only talking about the promise of Spring a week ago, and suddenly here it was today, all sunny and mild not grey! It’s hard not to feel cheerful when the weather warms up, even if it’s just for a fleeting moment. It was warm enough to wear a jacket instead of a coat, for heaven’s sake! In fact, when I popped out to run some errands at lunch I had to take said jacket off because I was too warm! I would even go as far as to say I could even have dared to bare my legs without contracting pneumonia, and that premise makes me very happy indeed, if only because I bought a hell of a lot of Summery dresses in the last couple of months that haven’t had a chance to be worn yet…. I was momentarily tempted to test out that theory tomorrow, but since British weather is schizophrenic we’ll probably be subject to gale force winds and hurricanes tomorrow so maybe not.

See, there I go over exaggerating again. Told you it was true!

Love,