Brrrrrr!

It’s cold in here! There must be some Toros in the atmosphere! (It’s okay if you have no idea what that means. If you knew instantly what I was talking about, it’s okay if you pretend you didn’t. Personally, I love Bring It On! I am not ashamed. I’ve got spirit- yes I do.) Anywho, it is chilly in Christchurch! Winter is upon us! (I don’t care about equinoxes and dates! If it’s this cold, it must be winter!) I suppose it’s not really any colder than other places I’ve lived, it just feels like it. There are two main reasons for this. First, a lot of the buildings here just aren’t as well sealed or insulated as they could be. (We live in an older building and I swear there are Antarctic winds coming from the edges of the bathroom window. The floor in there feels like a polar ice sheet. Penguins help me get dressed in the morning.) Secondly, there’s a definite lack of central heating. Some fancy folks have heat pumps, but a lot of people just use oil heaters (like the one next to which I’m huddling in the photo) and little fan heaters. (A rare photo, by the way, as shortly after it was taken I invested a giant, pink terrycloth bathrobe- like this- which I only take off when I’m in the shower or at work. It makes me look about 100 lbs. heavier than I actually am, and I bear a very close resemblance to that fuzzy guy from the Pink Batts insulation commercials. Surely Gordon has never found me so attractive. Whatever- I’m warm!) So I hope you northern hemispherians are enjoying the warmth of summer! And if it gets too hot, remember you can always come visit us (and the bathroom penguins) in icy Christchurch! (FYI: BYO bathrobe.)