This cold weather spell has come to many of us here in the Uk as a bit of a shock. The wind chill has fair taken your breath away as you walk and the aching feeling you get as the day wears on is systematic of such extreme temperatures when having to work outside at times.
We British have a very stiff upper lip until you start talking about the weather, then we let our guards down and throw all our effort into a full blown moan about just how cold, wet or hot it is. It's a pastime for us Brits, we choose it as a topic above all others to the point where it has been a familiar sketch on many a sit-com... "weather is nice for the time of year" is a must when the conversation is grinding to a halt !.
I have seen many extremes of our wonderful weather during my life, let's face it if you live on the Welsh Border the weather is going to be anything but conventional. When i was around 22 i worked for a local contractor Dave Alderson, Dave would literally work night and day and i was quite happy (at that age) to do the same thing. We once headed off right up into the Clun hills above Ceri Forest close to the Powys/Shropshire border to put some wire fencing up for a local farmer, it was so cold in the freezing mist up there that everything was soon coated in a layer of fluffy white ice, including the wire we were trying to nail to the posts, which duly stuck to any skin it came into contact with!.
We worked all day from 7 am in sub-zero conditions until around 6 pm when it became too dark (even with the lights of the Land Rover shining for us) so at last Dave said "we had better head for home i suppose" fine words to me indeed at that point !.. except Dave being Dave said, "Oh well, while this wood is here we may as well fill the Land Rover up for the journey home we need some for the fire at home.." so yet another half hour or so later we were eventually heading back down into the valleys below.
There is something you need to know about a Land Rover heater in those days, if someone from the trading Standards office was confronted with that label on the Land Rover heater today they would be sued. Heat it didn't, blow it did, mostly cold air ! so we froze all the way home.
Did i learn anything from this escapade?, well obviously as it sticks in my mind then yes i must have,
I learned that I can take tough going if need be and hold my own, it proved i could work hard and not complain. But, if i am honest if i look back at it now I am confronted with a slightly different analysis and that is, why was i daft enough to do it?. The answer is simple and springs to mind almost instantly, "a sense of duty."
A very very good friend of mine has warned me of the perils of the "D" word. It causes much strife and heartache in so many ways. To this day and until i am no more i will agree with her. Damn you Duty, you owe me big time.
We British have a very stiff upper lip until you start talking about the weather, then we let our guards down and throw all our effort into a full blown moan about just how cold, wet or hot it is. It's a pastime for us Brits, we choose it as a topic above all others to the point where it has been a familiar sketch on many a sit-com... "weather is nice for the time of year" is a must when the conversation is grinding to a halt !.
I have seen many extremes of our wonderful weather during my life, let's face it if you live on the Welsh Border the weather is going to be anything but conventional. When i was around 22 i worked for a local contractor Dave Alderson, Dave would literally work night and day and i was quite happy (at that age) to do the same thing. We once headed off right up into the Clun hills above Ceri Forest close to the Powys/Shropshire border to put some wire fencing up for a local farmer, it was so cold in the freezing mist up there that everything was soon coated in a layer of fluffy white ice, including the wire we were trying to nail to the posts, which duly stuck to any skin it came into contact with!.
We worked all day from 7 am in sub-zero conditions until around 6 pm when it became too dark (even with the lights of the Land Rover shining for us) so at last Dave said "we had better head for home i suppose" fine words to me indeed at that point !.. except Dave being Dave said, "Oh well, while this wood is here we may as well fill the Land Rover up for the journey home we need some for the fire at home.." so yet another half hour or so later we were eventually heading back down into the valleys below.
There is something you need to know about a Land Rover heater in those days, if someone from the trading Standards office was confronted with that label on the Land Rover heater today they would be sued. Heat it didn't, blow it did, mostly cold air ! so we froze all the way home.
Did i learn anything from this escapade?, well obviously as it sticks in my mind then yes i must have,
I learned that I can take tough going if need be and hold my own, it proved i could work hard and not complain. But, if i am honest if i look back at it now I am confronted with a slightly different analysis and that is, why was i daft enough to do it?. The answer is simple and springs to mind almost instantly, "a sense of duty."
A very very good friend of mine has warned me of the perils of the "D" word. It causes much strife and heartache in so many ways. To this day and until i am no more i will agree with her. Damn you Duty, you owe me big time.
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