Laters London!

I love my coats. The one I am sporting in this photo of my last day commuting in to London this winter is my waterproof coat for cold temperatures. It’s fantastically warm, keeps me dry, and I’ve pretty much been living in it since mid-December. And in any other year I probably wouldn’t emerge from it until the end of February. Then I might need to wear my waterproof coat for mid-temps, or my waterproof coat for warmer weather or if I’m lucky I might move straight away to my non-waterproof selection.

And that’s one of the joys of living in London or the UK more widely. We have real seasons and the variety of weather keeps us talking about it on a daily basis. We use it to break the ice with strangers or fill an awkward space. It promotes inclusion as we all experience the same weather that day and create common humour around the challenge of it. I will miss the weather changes of the year, the lengthening and shortening of days, the sudden need for an umbrella, the uncomfortable sticking of hair to forehead during a sudden unexpected heatwave. I will miss it all. As I hung up all my coats and jackets in the wardrobe and continued to pack without them I could see them looking forlorn. They seemed to look at me in disbelief, asking “do you really not need us?”

I told them that I am pretty sure I do not and closed that wardrobe on their murmuring.