I explained what we’d got up to on Sunday in yesterdays post, but what of Saturday?
Saturday was a very grey day, weather wise. All day it was just grey, cloudy and dull. I can’t remember if it rained or not. I don’t think it did.
It will come as no surprise to you that this country is geared up for fun in the sun. Beaches, horse riding, swimming pools and barbecues. That’s what it’s all about here. But when it is grey, cloudy and dull, your options become limited.
So on Saturday, we decided to go to the shopping mall. Guess what that reminded me of? Yes, that’s right! Living back in the England. It would be a grey, cloudy and dull Saturday and we would have to decide whether to go to the shops at Southend, Chelmsford, Basildon or, if we wanted to have real fun, Lakeside!
I am pleased to say that our choices for entertainment at the weekends have improved enormously since moving here. Our options are a gazillion times better than in the UK. But on this day, it was just like a trip down memory lane. The weathers’ awful, let’s go shopping.
It was on the way back in the car, with the sky looking like this……..
Grey, Cloudy and Dull on Saturday
….that my wife made an interesting observation.
She said she had been feeling a little bit down that day. It had started early and just never went away. As the day went on, she realised she couldn’t pin it on anything. Nothing was really “up”. It was only during the drive home, when she was confronted with the grey, cloudy and dull landscape before her again, that the penny dropped.
It was the weather. We were having British weather.
It’s not until you live somewhere that has hot and sunny with clear blue skies weather, (Australia) as the default setting, that you get what is going on. It’s so difficult to be miserable in this place. But it was real easy to be down in the dumps in England.
In a quirky twist, a friend of ours we mentioned this to, an Australian all her life, said she loved grey, cloudy and dull. “…it’s a refreshing break from the constant sun.” We are not at that stage yet!
Anyway, that was Saturday, today is Tuesday. Again, it is grey, cloudy and dull…..(with a bit of rain)
Grey, Cloudy and Dull (and Wet) on Tuesday
On a Clear Day, You Can See the City From Here.
I’ve decided to conduct a live experiment. Next time we have a hot and sunny with clear blue skies day, I’ll take photos from exactly the same places. In part one of the experiment, we will count the number of days we have to wait for the sun to come out again. I know that in England, on a bad run, there could be what? Forty? Fifty? More?? What’ll it be here?
In part two of the experiment, I want you to look at the grey, cloudy and dull pictures and then look at the hot and sunny with clear blue skies day pictures. Which ones make you happy and which ones make you sad?
I am no psychic, but I think I can predict the results on both counts. We’ll see.
