Grumpy Old American Living in England and It's Freezing!

Several hours a week of my life are spent lying awake in the middle of the night trying to go back to sleep. Some of my best ideas descend upon me during these hours. Ideas that are almost alway forgotten by morning. However, a few nights ago I began coming up with acronyms that might be applied to me! At the top of my list is GOALIE: Grumpy Old American Living in England. This morning it occured to me that perhaps I should amend the 'England' part to 'the Empire' -- in keeping with other prominent New Year's lists. This morning I thought of Old Broad of the Empire, but some of my adopted countrymen and women might take offense.

Living in England at the moment is a frigid affair. Our old Victorian house with its high ceilings is a refrigerator -- a few minutes I will be relieved to close the heavy curtains in my study --it's tempting to keep them closed all day -- it's tempting to stay in bed all day -- as it is I get up after 11 am -- so far rising before noon is sacrosanct to me -- it may not last much longer. I keep up with the ironing to get warm -- imagine that! I've even started taking a hot water bottle to bed. I never knew people did that before I came to England in 1980. You should see the fancy ones they have here in England. Functional hot water bottles that come with nifty fashionable covers -- I don't have one with a cover so I have to cover mine with a towel -- so as not to burn myself. Thinking about it now, I am tempted to go upstairs and grab it.

At the moment my Internet weather programs says it is one degree celsius above freezing outside -- not that cold if you are a New Englander well used to sub zero temperatures and snow measured in feet not centimeters. The trouble is this weather is rare in these parts -- I would say Florida has cold weather more often than we do in this part of England. The snow came a week ago and the side streets of this town of 88,000 people are not gritted and none of the pavements/sidewalks have been cleared.

I may have to get out my mink coat from the wardrobe where I've hidden it -- I'll say it's a fake -- even though my plan is to wear it to church on Sunday. For those who don't know, that is the coldest place in the Kingdom!

Weather and cocoa or not etcetera

I am so cold. The central heating is blaring away, the meter is whirring around as the gas flows and the radiators heat up -- but this old Victorian house and my study and the kitchen in particular are refrigerators. The ceilings are high and the walls are not insulated and neither are the floors. Now by New England standards the weather here is quite mild, but the houses in America were built for extreme cold.

Before the economic crises was recognized as such -- say last year -- I could go shopping and the stores would be so warm you could hardly stand it! But not anymore. The stores are cold, too -- though not as cold as this house -- though I could be wrong about that as I don't continue to wear my coat around the house (usually) ...

With a little luck we'll spend the summer in France and the weather will cooperate and spew forth sunshine and warmth. Chances are the English summer will be disappointing -- I have almost never ever been too warm here. (Save for shopping in downtown London). Time now for a nice warm cup of tea. Oh hell, I just realized -- I forgot to get cocoa yesterday! This always happens when I forget the shopping list -- especially when I remember putting the list in my handbag -- only to find when I get to the supermarket, that I must have remembered from last week! Life is being forgetfully confused. Darn -- cocoa would be just right right now ... Tea it is then ...

I have to laugh at the British newscasts this week -- There has been unusual amounts of snow here ... first there was headline news about schools and whether or not it was necessary to close them and now it's all about running out of salt and grit for the roads!!! Number one news stories. I haven't heard it said yet -- I'm just waiting for it -- "... to make sure it never happens again ..." so far the public has been spared that -- at least within my hearing. Southport has only had a few flurries even though all around us there are apparently piles of the stuff. I actually like the snow -- probably because I've barely seen it for so many years. England's climate is really quite boring -- never VERY VERY cold and never VERY VERY hot. No such thing as spring or autumn here -- it's either summer or winter -- thus 'midsummer' is on 21st June and 'midwinter' 21st December -- which until I came here I could never understand.