You've made the righ lifestyle choice. I thought that people who always talked about how amazing the Spanish lifestyle and weather are didn't have curiosity or ambition, but I was wrong. They simply aspired to different things: good weather 😆 They were right all along!
Well, I aspired to more than just good weather 😆 but lifestyle ranks high on my list of priorities... up there with career, which is a tricky mix, I know.
It's always about finding a good compromise between the two, isn't it? The dream would be to have amazing weather in countries where you can also build an exciting career but for some reason the two don't always align.
This is such a timely reminder of the negative effects of London winter weather! As I spend my third winter here in Barcelona taking walks, reading, and having vermut in the sun, it’s so easy to forget how depressing winter in London is, especially January February time. I think we all remember spring of 2021 too, with its slow post lockdown reopening marked by the coldest and rainiest May ever… anyway you definitely had the right idea to escape for your birthday. A new tradition is born!
It was such a great decision and I definitely felt like a brand new person in Barcelona and had a lot more energy. I had forgotten how lovely winter can be in the right climate : ) Enjoy all those vermuts under the Mediterranean sun for me!
Don't knock the sad lamp - I haven't tried but have heard good things! The first year I was at uni in the UK after having grown up in the sun I was UTTERLY depressed and then I think I just got used to that new state of being. And you are so right, there are words in Arabic that really have no equivalent in English like 'sahtain' when someone complements your cooking, which translates to 'to your health twice'...
I see, got it. So I can only use it myself if I am the one bringing her food that she likes. Such a great expression, very reflective of the role of food and hospitality play in Arab world.
The one thing I absolutely do not miss about England is the weather (I spent four years in the North West where the grey and the rain was routinely worse than in London). I returned home at the end of it with a severe Vitamin D deficiency never realising I should be taking supplements! Boston, where I also spent four years, may have gotten much colder but we at least saw the sun so much more in winter, it was like a revelation. I'm now back in Mumbai where we are currently very much enjoying a "cold snap" (read: actually pleasant enough that you don't always need the AC and can wear your long-sleeved clothes!) before it returns to high heat and humidity.
That's it: I'm not asking for miracles here - I love winter, I was born in it, and I like a cold crisp morning... with sun 😅 It makes such a different to see blue skies when the temperatures are around or below 0. Not to speak of the Vitamind D deficit that hits us all when the clocks go back in October... Enjoy the 'cold spell' in Mumbai : )
Silver lining here, relieved I am not having to deal with washing my hair while in Buenos Aires, with 35 degrees and 98% humidity!! Ja ja ja. Love your articles!
Thank you Liz! Advantages of the Southern Hemisphere - you're living the dream when we're crying for mercy (and sun) 😂 Enjoy the hot and humid weather : )
"I just swear a lot, complain non stop and throw tantrums" hahahahaha SAME~ one thing I noticed when I was living in England was that on their best day the sky was white. Not blue. Never blue sky. Always white-ish. I never knew about season-affected-disorders until I moved to Australia but even here, blue Monday is a myth because (let's say it all together) it's summer and it's tuesday already
Exactly - the sky is 90% of the time either grey or white-ish, where's the blue I grew up with??? Very glad (and jealous) that you don't have to worry about any of this under the Australian sun 😎 Enjoy it for all of us trapped in winter!
In Melbourne we have the worst weather. 4 seasons in a day is not a lie! But, on the other side, we can ALWAYS talk about the weather as an exciting topic
Yesterday I was at dinner with an Australian guy who now lives in London and he said that's one thing he's noticed is the same in both places: weather talk is endless and bonding : )
That same Australian guy asked me if I considered myself already a bit British after living here so long. Writing about the weather speaks for itself 😂
Oh gosh waking up to grey skies day after day just kills me. The only thing that kills me more is the continued choir of "but you're Swedish and Russian, you should be okay with winter!" Perhaps I should. Do I want to? Absolutely not.
After years of my Italian husband becoming practically one with his sad lamp here in the UK, we finally took action and now we travel somewhere warm every January. Trust me, it is the ONLY thing that helps.
It's so funny that people think that you have a high tollerance to terrible weather just because of where you're from. I get one can become used to it, but given the choice between a sunny day (not talking about it being boiling hot, but sunny) and a gloomy one, everyone chooses the sun.
Although I have also worked with people from Galicia, in North Eastern Spain, and all of them preferred London weather even at its worst as in their words "it rained a lot less than back home."
I'm with you about a winter break to a sunny destination - I did that for my birthday and it was a game-changer. The shock came when I returned to grey skies 😅
"Metereopatica." A new word for me to remember, Cristina, as I look out at these grey skies and will the sun to shine. I've never gone as far as buying a SAD lamp, but you've reminded me I've been forgetting to take Vitamin D, which I usually resort to during the winter months. Sigh. Hurry up, UK Springtime!
I have to confess that we've been having a bit of a respite and the sun has been out for the past couple of days but I need more of it. The SAD lamp was a revelation - had never heard of it in all the years I've lived in the UK.
What a funny piece, obviously your humor was not washed off with the London weather! 😆
The irony! I'm reading it on the rare day when it's cloudy and foggy over here...
Tantrum-throwing/pissed off all the time is the very reason I left Germany and moved to Spain. I know you understand.
You've made the righ lifestyle choice. I thought that people who always talked about how amazing the Spanish lifestyle and weather are didn't have curiosity or ambition, but I was wrong. They simply aspired to different things: good weather 😆 They were right all along!
Well, I aspired to more than just good weather 😆 but lifestyle ranks high on my list of priorities... up there with career, which is a tricky mix, I know.
It's always about finding a good compromise between the two, isn't it? The dream would be to have amazing weather in countries where you can also build an exciting career but for some reason the two don't always align.
Yes, the correlation seems impossible to happen there, I'm not sure why.
I wish we could solve that but, to use another English saying, I guess you can't have your cake and eat it.
This is such a timely reminder of the negative effects of London winter weather! As I spend my third winter here in Barcelona taking walks, reading, and having vermut in the sun, it’s so easy to forget how depressing winter in London is, especially January February time. I think we all remember spring of 2021 too, with its slow post lockdown reopening marked by the coldest and rainiest May ever… anyway you definitely had the right idea to escape for your birthday. A new tradition is born!
It was such a great decision and I definitely felt like a brand new person in Barcelona and had a lot more energy. I had forgotten how lovely winter can be in the right climate : ) Enjoy all those vermuts under the Mediterranean sun for me!
Don't knock the sad lamp - I haven't tried but have heard good things! The first year I was at uni in the UK after having grown up in the sun I was UTTERLY depressed and then I think I just got used to that new state of being. And you are so right, there are words in Arabic that really have no equivalent in English like 'sahtain' when someone complements your cooking, which translates to 'to your health twice'...
I haven't gone down the sad lamp route just yet, but who knows what the future holds. Everyone who has one seems to be positive about it.
I must definitely used 'sahtain' with a Palestinian friend, who is a great cook, next time she brings me food. I bet she'll be impressed!
She would say it to you if you thanked her for her food ('sahtain' is really kind of a you're welcome but really means 'to your health twice').
I see, got it. So I can only use it myself if I am the one bringing her food that she likes. Such a great expression, very reflective of the role of food and hospitality play in Arab world.
The one thing I absolutely do not miss about England is the weather (I spent four years in the North West where the grey and the rain was routinely worse than in London). I returned home at the end of it with a severe Vitamin D deficiency never realising I should be taking supplements! Boston, where I also spent four years, may have gotten much colder but we at least saw the sun so much more in winter, it was like a revelation. I'm now back in Mumbai where we are currently very much enjoying a "cold snap" (read: actually pleasant enough that you don't always need the AC and can wear your long-sleeved clothes!) before it returns to high heat and humidity.
That's it: I'm not asking for miracles here - I love winter, I was born in it, and I like a cold crisp morning... with sun 😅 It makes such a different to see blue skies when the temperatures are around or below 0. Not to speak of the Vitamind D deficit that hits us all when the clocks go back in October... Enjoy the 'cold spell' in Mumbai : )
Silver lining here, relieved I am not having to deal with washing my hair while in Buenos Aires, with 35 degrees and 98% humidity!! Ja ja ja. Love your articles!
Thank you Liz! Advantages of the Southern Hemisphere - you're living the dream when we're crying for mercy (and sun) 😂 Enjoy the hot and humid weather : )
JaJa! In London at the moment!
"I just swear a lot, complain non stop and throw tantrums" hahahahaha SAME~ one thing I noticed when I was living in England was that on their best day the sky was white. Not blue. Never blue sky. Always white-ish. I never knew about season-affected-disorders until I moved to Australia but even here, blue Monday is a myth because (let's say it all together) it's summer and it's tuesday already
Exactly - the sky is 90% of the time either grey or white-ish, where's the blue I grew up with??? Very glad (and jealous) that you don't have to worry about any of this under the Australian sun 😎 Enjoy it for all of us trapped in winter!
In Melbourne we have the worst weather. 4 seasons in a day is not a lie! But, on the other side, we can ALWAYS talk about the weather as an exciting topic
Yesterday I was at dinner with an Australian guy who now lives in London and he said that's one thing he's noticed is the same in both places: weather talk is endless and bonding : )
Look at us, meta-talking about the weather
That same Australian guy asked me if I considered myself already a bit British after living here so long. Writing about the weather speaks for itself 😂
PS: the semi naked british girls? the alcohol counteracts the cold, and the cold counteracts the high heel pain. I asked.
If you think about it objectively, it's a perfectly designed system where nothing has been left to chance.
Oh gosh waking up to grey skies day after day just kills me. The only thing that kills me more is the continued choir of "but you're Swedish and Russian, you should be okay with winter!" Perhaps I should. Do I want to? Absolutely not.
After years of my Italian husband becoming practically one with his sad lamp here in the UK, we finally took action and now we travel somewhere warm every January. Trust me, it is the ONLY thing that helps.
It's so funny that people think that you have a high tollerance to terrible weather just because of where you're from. I get one can become used to it, but given the choice between a sunny day (not talking about it being boiling hot, but sunny) and a gloomy one, everyone chooses the sun.
Although I have also worked with people from Galicia, in North Eastern Spain, and all of them preferred London weather even at its worst as in their words "it rained a lot less than back home."
I'm with you about a winter break to a sunny destination - I did that for my birthday and it was a game-changer. The shock came when I returned to grey skies 😅
"Metereopatica." A new word for me to remember, Cristina, as I look out at these grey skies and will the sun to shine. I've never gone as far as buying a SAD lamp, but you've reminded me I've been forgetting to take Vitamin D, which I usually resort to during the winter months. Sigh. Hurry up, UK Springtime!
I have to confess that we've been having a bit of a respite and the sun has been out for the past couple of days but I need more of it. The SAD lamp was a revelation - had never heard of it in all the years I've lived in the UK.
My sister has had a SAD lamp for several years and found it really helpful. (I think she still uses it. I will check!)
My colleagues agreed that it seems to be working for their partners. I find the name so funny, whoever thought of it was an wicked marketing genius.