A proper winters day today. This is what the UK is all about. Sod all the ex pats lolling around in the sunshine abroad, all smugly sending pics of them on a beach wearing a Santa hat & speedos giving a thumbs up. They're in the wrong place
This is where you need to be at Xmas. Stoically grinding out a British winter. In freezing Britain it's Classic festive winter weather. -2 degrees this morning. Heavy frost. Cars all frozen solid so you have to scrape the windscreen frantically until you can't feel your fingers anymore. You have to start driving through a tiny gap where the frost has melted from the internal heating. Basically the visually impaired can see more than you but we drive anyway.
We love the winter in Britain when there is no salt on the road so it's like driving on an ice rink and the whole country shuts down in chaos over a heavy frost or god forbid some snow. It's almost like it takes the country by surprise every year.
Those expats are just pussies. Mind you the Canadians or Eastern Europeans say the same about us. Those tough bastards get down to -25 regularly and get on with it. They can have 10 feet of snow Icicles bigger than Dawn French (pre diet) and it's no big deal. We have a heavy frost and the whole place is fucked.
It's proper Freezing today though. It feels colder in Britian and today was no different. Classic festive weather. Bitterly cold, dark early and freezing fog. It makes driving ultra dangerous particularly for all the stressed out boy racers who bomb around at 90mph. They almost deserve to wrap themselves around a tree. Natural selection really.
I love it when it's so cold you can see your breath making everyone look like they're on 20 Rothmans. Classic.
It just doesn't feel Christmas without that coldness. Xmas in the sun isn't Xmas. Carols, Santa hats, lights and decorations just doesn't suit 30 degree heat. Turkey and all the trimmings is for Winter in blighty not for the beach. The only thing you should be doing on a beach is basting slowly and perving at all the Chic's (or boys) behind your shades.
Today is most definitely festive weather. We are grinders in this country and the winter just adds to our sense of martyrdom and self satisfied stoicism. It's the sods who live abroad in warmer climbs, less tax, better standard of living, houses with pools, happier lives who are missing out on this one. Not that I'm jealous of course.
I mean they would have missed out today on a 15 mile tailback on the M25 in freezing fog. Or a heavy frost. Or it getting dark at 3pm, or the huge frantic cues in Primark for stocking fillers or the endless jars of quality street so you feel as fat as a slug. They're missing out on all of this. The carol singers who can;t sing, the hungry homeless hungry and homeless (Poor fuckers outside in this weather). They don't know what they're missing.
It's so sad how Xmas has become so commercial. Just another retailing sales exercise we all buy into. There is so much poverty and starvation in the world it's dreadful how the west is so gluttonous and selfish in meaningless consumer culture. Having said all that I'm due and upgrade on my phone and the burning issue today is Iphone 5, Blackberry Torch or Samsung Galaxy. I donated £2 a month this morning to a starving children foundation in Africa so my guilt is abated.
Today was eclectic. The morning was spent signing on. The afternoon working on my new company to try and get it off the ground. The evening was spent at a lovely little meeting out in the sticks doing AA service.
I met a dear friend on his house boat and he cooked us Beef Stew and Dumplings. Proper winter food and i heard the best phrase ever. 'You can't pick up a drink when your hands are in the sink'. Love it. Meaning if you do service in meetings and the fellowship it helps you stay sober and less likely to disappear up your own arse in self pity and self obsession, which i do far too often. So it is designed specifically for people like me to take me away from that. Just by washing up for a group. Genius and oh so simple that most professionals miss this. Much better for you than a £100 an hour shrink. Deeply practical and you know what it really works.
I'm a lucky boy and very fortunate to have a programme for living otherwise I'd be bang in trouble.
bbbbrrrrrrrrrr
xx
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