Today is the first day of June and whilst the UK is at the start of their summer, here in Australia it is the first day of winter.
That picture was taken today at 4.10 p.m. about 3 minutes from where I live, looking towards an expanse of nothing much. Last week the temperature was often around 24°C but today it has dropped to a frightening low of 21°. Gosh, that’s barely 70°F. But at least it’s sunny and I’m still in shorts.
In fact, I’ve been in shorts pretty much for 18 months. There have been just a few exceptions. Those include the occasions I have gone to the city for a pub crawl. Some pubs, especially the very expensive one that sells Belgian beer, do prefer their patrons to wear long trousers during the evenings. Then there was one very posh do I was invited to recently.
And last of all, in the evenings during the deepest and darkest depths of winter, I have been known to wear jog bottoms indoors instead of shorts. But we are not yet into those deepest darkest depths, that doesn’t happen until August. But when it arrives, and the cold chill takes hold, it can last up to two weeks!
When we moved, we bought with us some coats and a coat rack. The rack is up and the coats are on it. It has become a kind of Monument, a reminder of our old life back in England. I believe all the coats on it are still in the same position that they were when we unpacked it and set it up back in January 2008.
Winters here, and in particular I mean winters in Brisbane, are just not the same as those back in the UK. Do I miss those crisply cold winter mornings, scraping ice off of the car windscreen?
No.
Don’t get me wrong, Australians do take their winters seriously. This article was taken from my local free newspaper, “Westside News” last week. One of their intrepid reporters took to the streets to conduct a poll. He was asking the question “How do you plan on keeping warm this winter?”
Two of those questioned were wearing sunglasses and none of the answers mentioned bobble hats, gloves or coats.
I think that says it all.
Oh, I did wear long trousers on Saturday night, but I’ll tell you about that tomorrow.
🙂 I will throw in your way. I’m not sure I have the arm, but I’ll try 😛
Love this! 😛 It’s automn here (Qc), closing on winter, and already the daily maximum is lower than the daily minimum I monitored during the last winter in Perth. I have weather widgets on my desktop for all major Oz cities and a +6 minimum is awesome! I will land in Perth in July, but it won’t mean a thing to me, I’m used to -30 to -40 winter mornings…
Well you are living in a place that really does know how to do winters, Perth doesn’t really have them, does it, other than in name. If you can wear shorts, it’s not really winter. Throw a snowball for me, will you?
i love nick jr
There was a time when I would have loved it too. But all I had was Bill and Ben and the flowerpot men.
Flobalob.
Well I think the lowest temperature I have ever seen from my house, which is western suburbs, was about 8°C. I have been told it can go as low as 5°C just before sun up, but I’m always tucked up in bed when that happens.
As for putting your fire on from June to August, I can only imagine you’ve been here a few years. I’ve noticed people tend to “acclimatise” and as they live here longer, warm becomes the new cold.
Perhaps that is already happening to me, I think I wore my jog bottoms slightly more this latest winter than I did at first. But I think I am a long way away from a hat and scarf.
Ha, speak for yourself…..
We live in NW Brissie, and the temperature can get down into single figures during the winter, perhaps 4-5c colder than the city.
When we moved, we had a fire box sitting in the living room and thought, when the hell would we use that?
The answer is almost continuously through June-August.
Not only that, but I’ve gone and bought thermals, and I have scarf, hat, gloves for commuting to work. (I don’t drive, but I don’t miss the ice scraping one bit.)
It may be beautiful during the day (like a warm summers day in the UK), but as soon as the sun dips in the sky the temperature drops like a stone.
I haven’t scraped the ice off a car windscreen for over two years. Maybe I’ll never have to again.
I did buy two pairs of long trousers but only got to wear one pair before it got too hot to wear them. So they are stashed away for next (first two weeks of) August.
That’s winter!
Residents in different countries has different problems. During a Swedish winter the question is “Should I take the car or not today, the roads are so icy?” you guys have to problem “Should I wear long trousers or not?”. I very pleasant problem I think.
/Pierre