ADDENDUM: WEATHER

I meant to write up this thought the other week when I was complaining about the weather, but only found time to put my ideas to keyboard tonight.

I think that everyone complains about the weather - it gives us something to bitch about when there aren't more immediate concerns such as famine or war - but English and Canadian cultures complain in different ways. Brits seem to relate their weather complaints to the previous year's, or decade's, patterns. "It took even longer for summer to arrive back in '02!" can be heard in many circles. Complaints also centre around practicalities - laundry left out to dry that is now re-soaked through, or, in Cambridge's case, blown half-way across the shire.

Canadians, on the other hand, complain about the weather as a way of demonstrating their brawny skill in the face of daunting climes. It's all about bravery and while we complain about it being minus 40, we're really secretely pleased that we're so tough. Heaven forbid we don't suffer through a winter where our fingers nearly froze off on six separate occasions - we have an international reputation to uphold!

(This latter issue becomes tricky when I try to explain to people that I am from the one warm region of Canada...I don't want them to think that the country is all icebergs and polar bears, but I'd like to lay claim to a little of that Canadian bravado. Maybe I'll steal it from Kim, who really does live where it gets to minus 40!)