Saturday 17 May 2008

Cold

I used to think I knew what cold was. When our lecture theatres hit fifteen degrees Celsius, I'd be shivering away and wishing I had a jacket. If I had a jacket, I'd be shivering and wishing I had gloves. The coldest I'd ever been was in a half-filled auditorium at night, with too few people to warm the air. I didn't have a jacket with me, as it happened, and so I shivered for two hours until it was time to leave.

But now I know that whatever I felt then, wasn't cold. Now I know cold. For example, the temperature outside right now is seven-point-four degrees Celsius. It's also raining, so the humidity is close to a hundred percent. I'm in my house, in a blue woollen cardigan huddling close to the warmth of my computer. My house has misled me multiple times into thinking that the environment outside was a lot warmer than it actually was. Let me tell you, anyone outside right now knows the meaning of cold.

And it's not even winter yet.

2 comments:

eudora said...

hello dear. I'm back in Singapore now, but when I was in Charlottesville VA, the temperature went as low as minus 10 degrees Celsius some days. So I know what cold is too, dear.

Wintershark said...

Great! Tell me when you're free so I can call. I have a calling card which needs burning.

There's a little digital sign outside the main arts hall which lists the current temperature, and I walk past it almost every day. Today I was shocked to see it displaying the temperature as 5 degrees C. Five. It didn't really feel that badly cold, but every time I exhaled a giant white cloud would appear.

Minus ten sounds crazy. Do you get snow there? Snow makes up for everything.