Hey Mister, can we please have our sun back?

There is nothing quite like the 21 June to really hammer home the difference between living in the UK and NZ. Well that and the fact that one nation defines itself far too much by sporting prowess and the other has an over eager appetite for meat-filled pastry products. I'll let you decide which.

Anyway I would've thought that, after a couple of goes at this Mid-Winter-In-June lark, I would have been better prepared. Nope. Not at all.

No amount of chilled Sauvignon Blanc is going to trick my subconscious into believing it's summer. I should know - I've certainly tried! And just as wine-related relief doesn't work, neither does reading stories of a heat wave in the UK. In fact, if I'm being honest, it goes right against the grain it does. The very nerve.

Yes, seeing images of people laying spread-eagled in parks and on beaches whilst we're languishing in near-permanent darkness just doesn't seem right. In June? There should be a law against that. What makes it worse is that, rather than celebrating the arrival of warm weather (which let's face it doesn't happen that often in the UK) the papers are full of dire warnings about heat stoke, poor air quality or sunburn. Sheesh, there's no pleasing some people. It's summer so suck a Solero!

I can though totally emphasise with heat wave issues. Just as the cold is hard to bear, it's not nice being too hot. At least with the cold you can always put on another layer, when you're down to your undies there really is nowhere else decent to go.....

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the globe, winter in New Zealand seems like it goes on for an absolute age. Other than Matariki* there is nothing to break up the monotony of three months of dark and cold weather. But thankfully, after today, we're on the up. Time to get our ball back. 

But that is at least another two months away. Before then, we have to get through the absolute miserableness of July and August, both of which are full months. At least in the UK one of the winter months has the decency to be short. Yes I'm looking t you February. You may be bone-chilling cold but at least you're short!

I afraid there's nothing alternative but to escape to some winter sun for as long as possible. Which is why this year we're heading to Northern Australia. Yes there is a chance we'll be bitten by spiders, attacked by wild dogs or chomped by crocodiles but at least we won't be cold! Drastic times call for drastic measures.

It can't come soon enough. In the meantime I'll have to revert to my alcohol based solution. Yes I know I've already said that it doesn't work, but no one ever gets criticised for trying too hard do they!

 

*In the Māori language Matariki is both the name of the Pleiades star cluster and also of the season of its first rising in late May or early June. This is a marker of the beginning of the new year.