blogging it real

Holy shit the weather is truly atrocious. While the good people of Auckland and Port Waikato complain about a little hail, the weather here continues to be unrelentingly cold. Bone chilling in fact. This morning I awoke to a balmy 5 degrees. Yesterday the temperature varied from a low of 6 to a high of 11, and I'm sure that doesn't take account of the polar winds that buffeted us from every angle. The most hilarious thing about the MetService's page is that, while otherwise accurate, it forecasts "extreme" UV risk, and states:

Reschedule outdoor activities for early morning evening. Seek shade between 11am 4pm. Re-apply sunscreen regularly.

Is this someone's idea of a sick joke?? How exactly is the sun supposed to penetrate through the thick, unrelenting layer of dark grey cloud, and then onwards through my two thick sweaters and toque? And who is actually outside for more than the few minutes it takes to run from the car to their place of work? We're practicing sun avoidance here, alright, because it's too fucking cold to be outdoors! Wankers.

A couple of years back Yamis returned to Auckland for "summer", only to be met with rain on something like 35 of the first 40 days he was back (Dec/Jan). While I felt sympathy for the poor bugger at the time, I'd rather be a bit damp than living in this bizarre Antarctic version of hell.

Just for point of reference, two days out from the shortest day in the Northern Hemisphere, it's 9.3 degrees in Vancouver right now. If I wanted to be cold at Christmas I'd move back there. In fact, it's hard to be cold there for long because they have a little thing called indoor heating, and don't rely on such C19th technologies as coal-burning home fireplaces!