so, I didn't expect that

I moan - yes I do! I moan about the cold. I know, it's not right to moan about the cold when it is 20 degrees C in the middle of February but I do. You see it isn't 20 degrees at night. Once the sun sets (damn quickly, no twilight here) the temperature drops - actually, the temperature plummets. And, I've said it before, but it is worth repeating, Mexico just isn't built for cold weather. The minute the temperature drops there is no escape from the cold, no relief. There is no stepping into a warm house that keeps out the cold, my flat is actually colder than it is outside. Last weekend we had the first BBQ of the year, a "carne asada". It was warm enough to sit outside, drink, eat and be merry. Oh how we chuckled about the English, sat at home, shivering when they went outside.

And then, mid-week, the temperature collapsed.

Wednesday was cold, very cold. By the time I got home from work I had back-ache. Why did I have back-ache? Because my core body temperature had dropped so far that I was hunched over. There was nothing to do except crawl into the shower and try to re-boot. Once I had thawed out enough, I climbed into bed (fully dressed, wearing a hat), pulled the sheets over me and tried to stay warm.

Thursday morning I woke up (as you do). Elsewhere you might have been told about my morning routine - the alarm goes off, we say "hello", I slid out of bed, pull on a hoody and thick trackie-bottoms, light the gas fire, wander outside for the first cigarette of the day, back inside for another kiss and cuddle, crawl out of bed for a shower. Thursday I awoke to Snow Patrol on the CD player, kissed Maria, told her how much I loved her, how great my life was, pulled on a Spider-Man hoody, thick trackie-bottoms, lit the fire, put on  my leather jacket, went outside onto the balcony, lit my first cigarette of the day, and looked at the new truck parked on the other side of the street.

Look carefully at the picture. Our truck is green. The roof of our truck is green! Except, in the picture it is white. Why is it white? FROST!! Yep, Wednesday night the temperature dropped below freezing and the car was frosted over. The windscreen was frozen. This is a phenomenon (ba-bah-da-badda) that Maria has never encountered before - a frozen windscreen. It was a phenomenon that I never expected to encounter again. There I was, for the first time in my life, sat in a car without a can of anti-freeze. Fortunately I had a credit card!

Priceless!!

Comments

[neil h.]

Pah - that's nothing. I scraped the ice of my car this morning when the temperature was -5, came inside for a cup of tea to warm up and by the time I went out again to set off for work I had to scrape the windows again.

[Three-Legged-Cat]

We've had a touch of frost here too. Bloody cold, but it looked very nice.