The Hot and the Cold...

It has been extremely hot in Melbourne over the last few days though today the temperature dropped, significantly, and we are back to sweaters and coats. Even after living in this great city for over twenty years, the change in the weather, sometimes “four seasons in one day” has always and continues to astound me.

For many reasons I love cold weather: an excuse, really, to remain inside, watching old movies, reading a good novel or simply cuddling by the fire with the one you love.

My father was the exact opposite. He loathed cold weather, particularly the snow, even more specifically, driving in it. The man would go into a depression after summer, becoming darker and darker as winter approached. In a word, the weather dictated his emotional state.

In his last years he lived in Southern California and Atlanta Georgia; obviously for the reasons stated above.

For me, however, summer is one long tortuous season, the heat rising, matching my change in personality. The hotter it gets, the crazier I get; and at one hundred degrees, I’ve morphed into Hannibal Lecter, seeking out his next victim.

On the other side of this spectrum, in cool or cold weather, I’m happy, kind, funny and quite comfortable with the world.

In the 19th century, some intellectuals believed that climate dictated culture. This was, of course, an excuse, a justification, really, for the British to “civilize” those in hotter climates, like India, for example, and believe they were more highly evolved as they lived in cooler climates. We know this theory to be preposterous now, but reflecting on my own behaviour, during hot and cool climates, there seems to be a little credence to this theory.

On another note, this week would have to be in the top ten of all time worst weeks in my life. What ever could go wrong did go wrong and felt to get worse towards the end of the week. The weather all week was deathly hot, and by Friday, turned wonderfully cold.

Could this be merely a coincidence?

Today is Friday, a cold wind blows outside and I’m wearing a thick sweater, and I’m feeling absolutely brilliant!

Strange.