Winter is upon us

Oh dear, oh dear! Winter is here! It's the first rainy, windy, grey day. I realised yesterday that this could, well, be the reason for my rising melancholy. I do not like the cold. At all. Yes, I love a day spent next to my crackling fire, listening to the rain on the tin roof in the company of lovely people but, unfortunately, in reality, that is not how most of my Winter is spent (although I try to make those occassions fairly regular).

Mostly it's spent getting up in the cold dark, muddling through the rain to work and slinking back home to try and warm up in my made-for-Africa (i.e. NOT warm) house. Don't get me wrong, I love my House in the Middle of the Street but no, the bottom line is that it is draughty and cold. Unless you're sitting right next to the fireplace. Here in Africa we don't do central heating. We just ignore the fact that, for four months a year (sometimes more) it's bloody freezing.

I think it's like they say childbirth is - during labour you scream and swear you'll never again and then you forget the pain as soon as you see the baby. Then you do it again. All Winter we talk about installing solar heating, blocking the gaps under the front (and back) door that allow the freezing gales in (and sometimes the rain too, if it's heavy) and vow to buy more energy-saving heaters (I do try to be environmentally-friendly). But, as soon as Spring curls her pretty fingers around us... whoosh... out of my tiny brain it goes.

In other, fascinating, news, the milk I have at the moment seems to make a skin on top of my tea the minute I let it stand. Most disturbing. I told you it was fascinating, didn't I?

Cold, Hair Dryers and MacGuyver

It is cold. Like in bone-chillingly cold. I have a vest, a polo-neck and a fleece on and it is still cold. The heater/airconditioner thingy that's supposed to make the room "ambient" is also on, dehydrating us slowly from the outside, like those dried apricots, and I'm perfectly happy with that. It's just that it's still bloody cold.

If I could, I would have my hair dryer at work. I'd make an elaborate stand out of bits and bobs in the office (like MacGyver. Come on, who wasn't in love with him in 1986?) onto which the hair dryer would be placed in the perfect position to blow hot air over me, warming me gently, but not too much to lull me to sleep (it is, after all, work and it's apparently not acceptable to drool on one's keyboard - I'm not sure why but my best friend at work told me that, the last time I did it... I was full for heaven's sake - I'd had a big lunch and we all know that results in overwhelming tiredness and a need for an afternoon nap.)

Anyway, yes, so I had spent most of the afternoon drawing the plans for my elaborate bits-and-bobs-devised hair dryer stand when another work mate came in and looked over my shoulder and asked what I was doing.

I immediately got very excited and started detailing my MacGyveresque plots when he rudely interrupted me and asked loudly: "Why don't you just buy a fan heater?" Hmph, I hate it when Mr Logic comes and foils great plans. Still though, wouldn't it be cooler to have a Uniquely Designed Bits-and-Bobs-Devised-Hair-Dryer-Heating-Apparatus stand in the office?