Great Expectasia: Cold

It is damn cold out. It’s been in the 20s the past few days, and we have another week or so of it. People are telling me that 20s is not normal. Usually winter is more 30s.

When we moved here, we said, “30s! No problem! That’s like a warm winter day in Boston! We can take it – we will even enjoy it!” People said, “well, London winter is a bit different. It’s dark. It’s wet. It’s just cold.” “No problem!” we said. And believed.

Until…

We changed the clocks the week before Halloween (a week ahead of the US), and it started getting dark around 4. Now it’s totally dark at 4. The sun is JUST starting to rise when we walk to school at 7:30. Even on sunny days it seems as if the sun is either rising or setting the entire day. There is no period of simple sunshine.

But also, the sun doesn’t shine a lot. Luckily the last week HAS been sunny with blue skies, but we had weeks – or possibly nearly the entire month of November – where it was NOT sunny and there were no blue skies. It rained a lot. On and off. But a lot of on. And not just a drizzle. That I could have handled. It poured.

Let’s say it’s Monday and you left your house at 3:30 to walk a half hour to pick up the kids at school at 4, then you mosey on over to the football pitch for a 5-6pm training (that’s soccer field and practice for you Americans). You’re standing to watch and wait, along with Sam. It rains. It’s now been dark for about 2 hours, in the 30s, raining, and you’ve been chillin’ in all that for the last 2.5 hours. Then you walk about 7 mins to wait for a bus that is a half hour ride back home (it’s nearly the same amount of time to walk home, but the kids are EXHAUSTED, so to walk 38 mins after training and a long day is a lot). Toes numb. Wet. Hands freezing. Chilled to the bone. So you get home 6:45 and all you want is to warm up. You can’t wait to get inside.

But oops! Your house isn’t insulated!! So to keep the heat on all day is truly a waste of money and resources (and fuck Russia for making putting on the heat a political decision). So, it’s 13 inside when you get home (that’s 55 for your Americans). It takes about 5-6 hours to get the house up to 18, which is 64 and my goal for a comfortable house (though I would have considered that cold in the US). Luckily, I have figured out how to get hot water (turn on the hot water in the afternoon for 2 hours and we get 4 hot showers). The shower and the duvet is literally the only way to warm up. When I cook and use the oven I leave it open after to share its warmth with our house. It is truly freezing.

In the last few days it has been UNCOMFORTABLE to work from home. I have drank about 6 cups of tea each day. I sit under my favorite blanket. With a hat and scarf. Here is me writing this blog post. I finally decided to get a bit more creative. I turned off all of the radiators everywhere but the main floor (which is the second floor in the US, the first floor here – above the entrance). I closed the French doors to the stairway. I closed every window drape that doesn’t have critical light (light critical for my mental health). I made sure the small wall that has outside exposure and is FREEZING is covered by curtains. I set the curtains above the radiators so they could keep the window cold out (they’re not “double glazed” as they call double hung windows here), but the radiators are exposed. Before, when it was dark, we closed the curtains, which kept all of the heat from the radiators trapped between the curtains and the freezing windows and didn’t allow it into the room. WTF – why are the curtains so long? No idea. Yesterday it did feel warm enough to not be uncomfortable in our main room. After about 6 hours with the heat on and all of these provisions. Blah.

I didn’t realize how much the cold and dark (and also lack of friends, social life, obligations and really anything) had gotten to me until we got back from Greece, and I felt so much better, having left. I know that London is great. I know there is lots to do here. But I am also definitely in the valley of despair part of the TOTALLY NORMAL ex-pat relocation cycle. It’s tricky. But it takes time. And warmth. And a bit of sun. And maybe a friend or two.

In other news, Matt just got back from a trip to the US. He had an easy trip, and we were really fine without having a second parent. Luckily we had no incidents that required a further grown-up. Koby puked at school a few days before he left so that was out of the way. Phew.

We have also REALLY been enjoying the World Cup. So much fun to learn about football and cool to be in England, who is still in it, with kids who love Messi and Ronaldo, who are still in it, and we’re headed to Morocco in a few weeks, and they’re still in it too! The rest of the world sees the World Cup as a BIG deal, and it’s fun to be in that rest of the world.

Our weekends have been basically involving football, Hebrew school and shuttling kids to birthday parties, and that’s about it. Kinda disappointing as I want to get out and see stuff, but I guess that’s not happening for a while.

Elie participated in his first chess tournament (photo credit to Piyah)

I got to read two books to Koby's class as a mystery reader. He chose Those Darn Squirrels Fly South, and I chose Stuck. The kids loved them both.

This was Koby riding home from school after he puked. He had asked to stay in school. He was totally fine but maybe drank too much water? And he pukes when he is getting a cold. And he was getting a cold. The nurse said I could send him back the next day if he didn't puke again, no fever and total energy. So back he went.

So that Monday that I described above was last Monday. We got home at 7, and I threw on some eggs and pasta. I was really uncomfortable and grumpy. Kids were showering when I was cooking. I felt a bit of despair. I flipped my omelette, and it said, “BLAAAAAAH.”

It gave me a funny frowny face that I first interpreted as “waaaah for you! Get over it, lady!” but then my mom suggested it had sympathy, and I liked that better. So it said, “waaaah. Sometimes life is cold and a bit hard! I hear you!!” (Getting emotional support from an omelet slightly reminds me of when I first moved to Singapore and similarly had no friends and made friends with the voice on the MRT and other imaginary beings).