How many times have you been sitting in the doctor’s waiting room, or aboard the bus – praying that nobody comes and sits next to you – when the ice is broken by a fellow British person who, like you, didn’t really want to chat to anyone but couldn’t handle the uncomfortable silence? Invariably the opening gambit will be something along the lines of “Nice weather for the time of year isn’t it?” or “It looks like it’s going to rain…” An obsession with the weather seems inherent in all British people. It’s either too hot, too cold, too windy or too wet. It’s always nicer weather abroad, and the summers were always longer and hotter when you were a kid.
British people should be happy to have such unpredictable and changeable weather. A day at the seaside isn’t complete without an impromptu rainstorm to soak your fish and chips, or gale force gusts that blow up Gran’s skirt and expose her huge knickers (much to the entertainment of the children!). Why do you think cricket matches are scheduled to last the best part of a week? If Britain had tropical weather all year round then where would the fun be in having a pie and a pint round a roaring fire in your local pub? Do we really want a repeat of the drought of 1976? (for those too young to remember, the summer of ’76 was great as a child. It was illegal to have a bath, making every snotty kid in Britain very happy for a few months).
Let’s embrace the British weather. Without it we may find ourselves in an unwanted situation where strangers in doctor’s waiting rooms open conversations with lines like “Are you here to have your piles injected?”
