I was just having a quick look through my folder of draft blog posts (searching for something that I could finish off and post quickly) when I came across a post that I wrote when I was blogging every day in December - my Advent calendar of blog posts. Oh, and yes I am obviously a glutton for punishment to do it all over again!
The post that caught my attention was called "Hot Day". And it occurred to me that the perfect title for this blog post, 6 months later, is "Cold Day". Last night was the longest night of the year. It was also the coldest night of the year so far. Out our way the temperature sat close to zero for most of the night. We woke up to a very frosty morning indeed - I decided to wear knee-high boots under my work pants, it was that cold! Gloves were a necessity of course.
Today I stayed back at work, so got home at about 7.30pm. The heater was turned on straight away, but 2 hours later I'm still hunching and shivering and my fingers feel stiff and frozen. The electric blanket is already on, and I think I'm about to give up on doing anything useful tonight and go to bed.
It's funny, you'd think I would find Melbourne positively balmy after living in Canberra, but I found that -8 degrees in a double brick apartment is easier to bear than +3 degrees in a weatherboard house. And winter days in Canberra are so marvellously sunny that you almost forget how cold it is :) I don't think I ever got the winter blues until my first year back in Melbourne after leaving Canberra - the grey winters really get to me now.