Frigo

It is a reasonably sunny London evening, with temperatures hovering around the 5-8ºC range. Evidence of a recent short shower of rain drips from the red leaves of the tree outside my window. For the first time in my life, I say this: I crave warmth.

In Singapore, I used to give my claustrophobia a good workout in the underpasses and basement walkways of the Orchard, Somerset and City Hall areas. Now, I welcome sunshine. Those of you who knew my old sun-shunning self must be very surprised.

I enjoy the ephemeral. Here, sunshine is ephemeral. It is an infrequent occurrence in London life, so infrequent that a short-lived clearing of clouds is met with frantic attempts to do everything that the usual grey, drizzly and cold weather doesn’t permit: lie on the grass in Regent’s Park, have a picnic in the Hyde Park, pretend it’s summer again, dine al fresco, go for a jog, feed the ducks and pigeons and swans in St. James’ Park, leave the dratted umbrella at home, have a sorbet, dress skimpily.

I myself have turned into one of these crazy people who react dramatically to sunshine. No, I don’t leave my coat in my room or wear a short skirt; I simply sit in sunny spots and soak it up like a cold-blooded lizard (or a solar-powered flashlight, if you prefer). Accompanied by two friends on Thursday I spent a good two hours doing just that, first in Gordon Square Gardens and then on the steps of the Quad. It was both calming and energising and if not for the massive rain clouds that interrupted our sunny sojourn by obscuring every bit of blue sky, we would’ve stayed there.

As a result of the imminent winter, days are shortening here on the Isles. In Scotland, presumably, days are already dreadfully short but as the sun begins to set at 1745hrs here in London, I find myself making fun of Scottish weather less and less. While reading and writing and sitting quite still at my desk, my lack of movement makes me feel colder and colder as the sky turns from light grey to an inky blue-black. At some point, my attire changes slightly; I need my fleece-lined jacket to keep myself from being distracted by the wall-penetrating, skin-tingling cold. At night, the temperature dips, threatening to hit zero as the hours tick by. Under my duvet, I hardly feel the descent into that range of temperatures – something I feel increasingly grateful for.

The sunshine I wrote about in the first sentence of this post has disappeared. The clouds in the sky seem to spell the word bleak now as lights blink on in the compound. My dinner awaits re-heating, and I shall attend to it now. I welcome warmth – in all forms.

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