As I took of my mitts to reveal the woollen gloves with the fingers cut off, unzipped the sleeping bag and threw the cold hot water bottles on the floor, pushed back the duvets, blankets and coats piled on top of me, I realised today would be somewhat chilly. I was right! Freezing fog hung over everything and in spite of being dressed for a quick search for the North West Passage I still felt the frostbite tingle as I trudged slowly to the soup kitchen. Watching people dressed similarly to me slip sliding away along the pavements I came across several in bright yellow clobber. That reminded me of Billy Connolly's tale of Aberdeen holidays. As a eight year old he was forced into swimming trunks and encouraged to"Get in the (North) Sea ya big Jessie!" by their mothers. Meanwhile, forty miles offshore oil rigs swarmed with men dressed in several layers of clothes, covered in bright yellow oilskins, desperately attempting to keep their body above freezing point! A mothers care never ends!
2 comments:
Its not fair. I have to make this stuff up, old fart.
First of all, I would like to make it abundantly clear that this comment is not at all an admission that Scots may actually know something. It is, if anything, an admission that we vastly superior Americans do have a few idiots living amongst us, which is something that only someone vastly superior would admit to.
Anyway, a couple of years or so ago, I was absolutely shocked to hear one our local weathermen announce that the National Weather Service had officially recognized freezing fog as a weather phenomenon. For after experiencing it many, many times while truckin' all over the United States of America and parts of Canada, I figured that this had been done about the same time as rain or snow was officially recognized. No, I have no idea what they called it (if anything) before.
Post a Comment