And as winter closes in, I'm reminded...

May in Australia is roughly the equivelant of Novermber in the northern hemisphere. Because our temperatures here on Mt. Dandenong are generally 4-5C lower than the city below, well, it gets chilly here before anywhere else.We don't see much snow (THANK HEAVENS!), but the continual rain and wind can drive the chill into your bones all the same.

I'd like to report an observation about differences in how people relate to the changes in temperatures here (as opposed to the US). I come from Ohio where it can get pretty darned cold (not as cold as some places, I'll agree, but cold all the same). Ohioan's (and I suspect others in the US) tend to like temps toasty - 72 F was always considered the ideal summer day temp. And I remember well the national campaign trying to get people to turn their thermostats down to 68 F  - and even lower during periods when their homes were unoccupied. I always found 68 F a bit, well, too cool for me.

But then again, I was raised in Ohio where we cranked up the furnace and didn't really put on a lot of heavy sweaters ("jumpers" in Australia) or other clothes to compensate. Oh, sure, the shops all had thermal underwear, and I guess it sold well, but I remember well in my office building that 70-72 F was considered good and anything lower would bring complaints.

In Australia, people are a lot hardier.

I was at the grocery today - a day when I was wearing a thick sweater and a lightweight coat. It was rainy and roughly 55F (maybe a tad lower). Ahead of me was a woman in a thick sweater, but wearing garden shoes (you know  - those hideous rubber scuffs with holes in them) and no socks. It happens more than you'd think. On a day when the temps dip well into the 50's, you'll still find people here in flip-flops (in Oz we call them "thongs"), sitting in outdoor cafes, enjoying a coffee and a chat. I keep my house warmer than anybody I know here - but even so am learning, year after year, to adjust to and appreciate lower internal temps in winter.

Swing to summer, you see the same differences.  I know very few people here who have A/C. Very few. And in the places where it's used, it's used sparingly. In Ohio, I had trouble during summer with chest colds brought on by overly-aggressive use of A/C. You'd go in from 90F to 70F - and back out again - AND the air inside a heated building could become incredibly dry. The shock to the lungs is, well, those of you in the states know what I'm talking about.

Here, A/C units are used to take the edge off - not to completely cool a space to the (US-loved) standard of 70F or so. And I've yet to have gone into any store or shopping center and thought "oh, gee, it's cold in here" during summer.