Monday, June 12, 2006

If I had a snowman...

Well, poo in a pocket...

I had a finely crafted blog going there...

And my blasted computer turned itself off.

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Into the fray once more! Into the fray!

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If I had a Snowman, this is what it would do:



That's how hot it is in London. I have been wearing an ice pack on my leg tonight, then it melted and I started pouring the water on my stomach to evaporate and cool me off. (You there, stop thinking about my stomach and pay attention.)

When I had my wisdom teeth extracted, I went without painkillers. By the fourth day I said to my mother: "Mummy, please make it stop."

It's like that with the temperatures here. Basta! So they said we'd have a thunderstorm this evening and of course, like clockwork, it didn't happen.

That's how it is with weather in the British Isles. You can be sure that it will be exactly the opposite of what they say. So one day you have an entire nation running in circles to escape the rain, and the next carrying silly big umbrellas in the sunshine.

No, I am not even on the track of what I was saying when I lost the last blog....I was saying that on the other hand, in Texas, when they say it will rain at 6pm, it does - because they have watched the front come down from the Pacific over the past two days and can pinpoint when it will arrive. So you can plan your day accordingly, and be in before the light show.

Also, in Texas, we'd get a week's worth of rain in an hour, whereas in the UK, we get a day's worth in a week. In Texas, it rains like the Dickens, filling up the water table and everything, and then the sun comes out and you wouldn't know anything had happened, apart from the really perked up pine trees. It did that in London once and Lambeth got flooded.

In Britain, it does it half-heartedly, so the weatherman's use of "spits and spots" or "dribs and drabs" is, well, spot on! And then when the clouds do finally decide to cease drizzling on us, they figure they can hang around for another week or so, while they watch us leave the house with umbrellas "just in case", and the weathermen can forecast rain that never happens...

...rather like the hurricane that did happen in 1987. Michael Fish said, "Oh don't be silly, there won't be a hurricane..." and there was one, and we woke up with all the trees lying down, and we never forgave him.


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In other news, I walked from Thurloe St (South Kensington), into a couple of galleries at the V&A, then out along Brompton road, all the way up Knightsbridge, through Hyde Park, to Piccadilly, then through to Regent Street. Got myself a pair of linen suit trousers so I can be smart AND cool, then took the bus home.

Tomorrow I shall tell you why I was at Thurloe Street, but today I want you just to enjoy the very English weather rant. :)

14 comments:

ChrisinMB said...

Those ceramic figures are melting snowmen?

Look like little ghosts to me. I would only use them on Halloween.

Prerona said...

what does basta mean? i hate the heat - its hotter here if thats any consolation

Olivia said...

Chris - LOL they do a bit. Should have been given ORANGE noses...tut...

Prerona - "Basta!" is Italian for "enough!"
Yes, you have consoled me because I know you get no variations, whereas here it rained last night and the temps have gone down.

Miss Dallas said...

Air conditioning isn't all it's cracked up to be. It costs too much to run them during the summer and the junk they use to cool the air is toxic. We just have a lot of ceiling fans and screened windows. It's amazing what a little circulation will do.

As for Texas weather, I can vouch for that. However, I'm sure that hot in London is very different from hot in Texas, where we think that 85 F is an incredibly mild summer day. We're due to reach 100F today through Friday with Rocky Mountain cold fronts cooling off our weekend. It's either extremely hot, extremely dry, extremely wet or extremely humid. The trouble with Texas is our definition of "mild weather."

Trust me, I'd take limp locks in London to blazing Texas drought any day!

Anonymous said...

Are you saying it doesn't flood in Texas? At least you don;t have to worry about hurrican season.
Watch out Florida, Alfredo is coming.
But you are right, the forecast is pretty predictable for the most part.


Vanessa

Olivia said...

Steli - OK...and if I did, I'd use it at the most 3 times per year! LOL

Luna - you mean even the Freon replacement is bad? Personally, I couldn't have lived in TX without A/C - the alternative was still not comfortable enough and interfered with normal activity. But it's what you're used to, we knew born and bred Texans who were fine in a hot car, while my mother was stifling to death. Now, my Mum grew up in a tropical country but she could never get over how hot Dallas is - I remember 114 one summer! - because where she's from she said it rarely got hotter than 85.

Vanessa - no, but I am saying that one rainstorm can flood London because the sewage system is so old and not built for capacity.

MattJ said...

Hmmm. dunno about your decription of Rain, maybe like that in England but get some altitude it's a different story.

If you don't like the weather where I am from, you wait 20 minutes.

Leilouta said...

LOL anonymous...it is not Alfredo, it is Alberto :)

michelle said...

hey I need to link u too 20six again

Anonymous said...

Houston isn't much better....
V.

Lasto-adri *Blue* said...

hay O
i've heard about how hot london is lately.. God be with you..
hot weather always unbearable..

and yay, i got my wisdom tooth extracted a month ago as well.. :D .. hehe... i thought its going to hurt alot.. but amazingly i felt nearly nothing at all *except for the pouring bload.. yuck!*


miss u O :)

Olivia said...

BLUE!!! I am so glad to see you here, we have all missed you SO much! Oh please don't go away for so long again!

Um Naief said...

i would have to agree w/ chris... those snowmen look like little ghosts! very cute tho.

aaahhhh... texas weather. that's something i really miss. i love the thunderstorms there. and you're right, they are predicted down to the minute. there's nothing like hearing such loud thunder and such pouring rain. i really miss it.

Olivia said...

Tooners - have I forgotten something, did you live in Texas? Where?