The entire internet seems to be celebrating the arrival of summer time: late sunsets, sunny mornings, a general air of positivity…

Well I’m here to assure everyone that the weather is positively miserable in some places.

Winter has well and truly hit the Southern Hemisphere, as wind chill sits at -7, the sky smells of woodsmoke, and stewing steak seems to be at the top of everybody’s shopping list.

So far, winter has been swallowing up entire days – the morning is lazy and dark when I go to work, and it’s settled back into darkness again when I leave. I’m suspicious as to whether the sun ever actually made an appearance.

Work is also the place where I retreat to the cool room because it’s warmer in there than outside, your breath is always visible, and I forget that at some stage my fingertips did in fact have feeling in them.

With a thermos of soup, 3 pairs of socks and 2 jumpers per day, and a struggling car heater, I’ve survived the first week of winter. I hope that the quaint cityscape bathed in snow soon replaces the sloshing puddles and a wind which hits like the crack of a whip.

In the spirit of “season envy”, I’m listening to an old favourite, Summertime 🙏🏼❤️: