Apparently, record numbers will be leaving the UK this Winter break, seeking sunshine in distant locales. They say this every year, as though it has come as some surprise that people might prefer 2 weeks of sunshine, to darkness, rain, sleat, wind, family get-togethers and sherry. It's a no-brainer in my opinion. If you have the cash, do it! Personally I hate the long hours of darkness, I think I suffer from SAD (Sunshine... something or other disorder). It's very common in the North of Scotland. That's why people in Orkney and Shetland kill themselves more per head than anywhere else, during these long dark months.
It's not even as though we get snow anymore either. At least that cheered people up a little bit, and since it reflected back the light, it was reversing some of the effects of SAD. But we don't really get snow anymore, the weather patterns have long lost that predictability which they once had. I've heard the eldsters talking about 6 feet of snow, and I can't recall more than a few inches at best.
Perhaps you're reading this and as a resident of someplace either very hot or very cold, you might think it unacceptable for me to complain about weather which is nether here nor there, but believe me when I say that extremes are the way to go. We don't want overcast, windy and mild everyday. We want heatwaves and blizzards. That's what makes it bearable, natures fury unleashed. Well, a little bit of it anyhow, not the full whack. Couldn't have that!
