Last night I slept with two blankets on the bed. I took the winter coat out of the closet again and am seriously considering turning on the heating.
It’s June. It’s supposed to be summer. And honestly, I feel cheated.
We are, of course, a nation of weather observers. It permeates our conversations, shapes our days – ‘how is it outside?’ – and I know I can’t be the only one with not one but two separate weather apps on my phone.
But over the past two weeks, the general discussion about this cold and dreary June has reached a fever pitch.
Forget the General election or the euro: what we Scots really care about is why on earth we light the fire when we should be looking out of the barbecue.
After enduring the long winter months, we are still bundled up in anticipation of summer
I don’t know about anyone else, but I found last winter particularly miserable. The long nights felt longer, the cold seemed to last forever, the only thing that made it all worth it was the thought that after the long winter work, summer would be just around the corner.
Maybe it’s because we’ve never been more aware of our rising heating costs, hovering over the thermostat and checking the balance at the gas company to make sure we weren’t crippling ourselves with debt just to get a nice to have a warm house.
Last winter we only had the heating on at night during the working week, which meant we came home every evening to a freezing house that took hours to warm up thanks to high ceilings and not quite double glazing.
I’ve lost count of the number of nights I spent sitting on the couch, wrapped in blankets, wearing a pair of fingerless gloves. “It’s okay,” I kept telling myself. ‘The summer is coming.’
But summer has not yet come. Not really. Yes, I know the leaves are on the trees and the grass is growing and there were some sunny days in May, but that should have been the appetizer, not the main course.
I have always believed – perhaps quite wrongly, I’m sure any meteorologist can agree with me – that in Scotland May and June are in trouble when it comes to sunny weather.
The days stretch on, the sun is high in the sky and the warmth penetrates your bones. For some reason it always seems to rain in July, and as a result it is still quite warm. It infuriated me in my school days – it felt like the rain started on the first day of the summer holidays – but as an adult I’ve grown to love it.
Why is it then that, apart from those bright May days, we’re exposed to the kind of weather more suited to casseroles and steaming mugs of hot chocolate than to watermelon salads and an Aperol spritz clinking with ice?
Apparently it has something to do with the Atlantic jet stream and cold air from Greenland and Iceland. And it’s not unprecedented, nor is it necessarily related to climate change.
In June 1975, temperatures were so cold that snow fell across Britain. That’s fair enough, but cold comfort – quite literally – for those of us hoping for a similar June to last year, one of the warmest on record.
Can we expect more of this in July? Meteorologists seem divided on this.
Many will then desperately long for summer holidays abroad. For those lucky enough to be heading to sunnier climes in the hope that the weather in Scotland will prepare for their return, I hope you enjoy that Aperol spritz and factor 50.
But never forget that in Scotland the law of the turf is king. Chances are, just as your plane takes off, temperatures at home will rise to Mediterranean climates…
—————————————— —– —————————————- ——
Karen longs for the sound of home
Karen Gillan says she is desperate to play a Scottish role and is tired of using American accents. “I’m always a damn American now,” the actress, pictured left, told a website this week. “I need something written with a Scottish accent.”
The last time she could speak in her own way – Gillan, remember, is from Inverness – was when she played Groundskeeper Willie’s girlfriend Maisie in The Simpsons.
Forget Braveheart, maybe it’s finally time for Hollywood to cast Gillan in the biopic Flora MacDonald, set in Scotland.
—————————————— —– —————————————- ——
■ GOD. Lord Ivar Mountbatten, King Charles’s great-nephew, is heading to Inverness to take part in the next season of the US version of the hit TV show The Traitors. The Americans can never resist a small royal family, right? Who’s next I wonder? Prince Harry?
—————————————— —– —————————————- ——
They can’t take away our house drinks
A government-funded study has found that the supply of alcohol to people’s homes via takeaway apps in Scotland must be severely restricted to tackle the country’s alcohol crisis.
Do they? Is adding a few beers to a takeaway curry really the cause of the country’s drinking problems?
Are you ordering a bottle of prosecco because you can’t handle the walk to the supermarket at 8pm on a Friday and quite frankly, it’s turning us all into alcoholics?
There is no doubt that Scotland is in the grip of an alcohol epidemic, with deaths at their highest level in fourteen years. But this is despite the SNP’s flagship minimum unit pricing policy, a move that many have seen as punishing social drinkers while doing little to tackle the root cause of social depravity.
I understand that getting this issue under control is complex and will likely take years of hard work and research.
But punishing casual drinkers with yet another poorly thought-out policy seems like a completely wrong approach.
—————————————— —– —————————————- ——
■ He may not be on track for a big win, but at least Ed Davey is having fun this election campaign.
The Lib Dem leader appeared on This Morning for a ‘summer makeover’ (it involved a white ‘man from Del Monte’ style jacket and trendy brown pumps) and launched his manifesto at Thorpe Park before riding a rollercoaster.
If you can’t beat them, you might as well entertain everyone with some crazy stunts.
—————————————— —– —————————————- ——
Train travel in rural areas is simply not fair
Rural train fares in Scotland cost more than double those in the Central Belt.
A return ticket from Glasgow to Motherwell costs £6.10 for 26 miles, while the fare from Inverness to Dingwall of 14 miles costs £13.20.
This is a shocking discrepancy.
We need people to live, work and thrive in our rural communities. It is vital for everyone in Scotland, including those in urban areas.
It shouldn’t come at such a prohibitive price.
—————————————— —– —————————————- ——
■ It’s a Taylor earthquake! Fans at Taylor Swift’s shows in Edinburgh danced so vigorously last weekend that earthquake monitors were activated. Amazing considering that a week later so many of them are still on cloud nine.
