Saturday, February 4, 2012

Not quite Siberia

It’s cold. One newspaper reporting on the cold weather explained that this was due to cold air coming in from Siberia, before helpfully adding: “It is, however, not actually as cold here as it is in Siberia.” Or, indeed, Romania, where it’s almost at the stage that if you sneeze, it hits the ground with a thud.

The weather here can be summed up as “cold, but not that cold”. It is, of course, colder than in Britain where, as is the custom every year, the emergency services are on high alert and the tabloids full of horror stories involving “patches of ice” and “up to two inches of snow”, but I have written enough on that particular subject in one form or another that I really don’t need to bang on about it now.

It’s cold enough that even Bonnie is reluctant to go outside. This is a problem, because she has far too much energy for a cat her size (Einstein, had he known her, would have been in serious doubt as to whether E=mc² could come close to describing the number of ergs represented by her mass), and so she’s constantly begging me to play with her. I wouldn’t mind, but “Sorry I couldn’t meet the deadline, I had to teach my cat to juggle toy mice” doesn’t really cut it.

But at least I have a warm jacket. My wife bought it for me some time ago, and at last I have had a chance to try it out. It’s a nice jacket, and very warm, but includes a whole range of mysterious features. Like a digital camera that has too many software menus for you to memorize, this jacket, once you have removed all the tags (itself a daunting task, and there’s always one you don’t notice and so it dangles down your back to the amusement of passers-by), boasts a range of zips, velcro strips, toggles and studs to put the flight deck of a 747 to shame. Putting it on is like donning a spacesuit, except that in a spacesuit, there’s less chance of getting tangled up in what turns out to be a removable lining.

Don’t get me wrong, I like it. It’s just that in the 21st century, you shouldn’t be spending more time putting on and taking off an item of clothing than you do actually wearing it.

But still, I do appreciate it, because the weather is cold. Not quite Siberia, but cold.

1 comment:

  1. I noticed that my cat prefers to go out when it's freezengly cold with snow than even in a gentle rain, so sometimes I saw her sitting outside covered with snow but it doesn't bother her

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