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Recently I took an 18 hour journey involving a bus, two planes and the tube to get from Lapland to London. The short season was complete and the reindeer that worked for us had gone on holiday! They've earned it!

I'll miss the reindeer.
They were gentle, shy and beautiful.

Oh wait- the reality of 'holiday' is that they are being slaughtered and made in to reindeer burgers. Of course the children in Lapland were more than happy to hear that their furry friends were going on a cute vacation; as intended, they did not understand the euphemism.

Meat industry aside, I was happy to be back in my Dad's house in Blighty. My new pal Holly and I were going to have a chilled night in after the long day travelling, before she headed back to a place (that I rarely go to as a good Southerner) called 'The North of England'.

Needless to say that the weather in the UK was very mild compared to the Arctic circle. Joyfully there was no snow and the temperature was much more sensible. That was, until we got inside the house. My dad was on holiday* for Christmas so the heating had not been on for 5 days. We reluctantly discovered that this meant the inside of house was as colder than outside.

*Please note that my Dad went on an 

actual holiday- he had not been 

butchered and made into cannibal fodder

It was ironic that we'd been living in Lapland but felt colder when we got back to England. Of course the houses in the arctic are well prepared for the low temperatures. Take the windows in my apartment: double glazing, then a three inch gap followed by another double glazed set of glass. So the whole window unit was about 4 inches wide and kept the heat in well. 

The rest of the place must have been well insulated too, and there were even a sort of airlock area, so you could close the front door before really entering the house. At least that was the idea- nobody ever shut my front door! I know I was the Mum of the house but I didn't want to nag that much. When the weather is so cold that your nostril hairs freeze, leaving the door open for a second longer than necessary is not ok.

Ice Bar in the Igloo-
Similar to London houses apparently.

Back in London, we were hopping about in the house, much like we used to when outside all day in the Arctic. The heating was turned right up but of course to warm the whole house was going to take a while. Instead we concentrated our efforts on just one room and chucked four hot water bottles into my tiny HP-esque bedroom. 

I also had the idea of bringing the kettle in to it and leaving it running, spewing a sweet supply of steam into the room. It was like being back in Lapland in the sauna, acclimatising us slowly to being back.

The next morning, the opening of the curtains was a big time event. It was, in fact, the first time we had seen the sun in 6 weeks. Sure in Lapland there is the 'light' part of the day, but the sun is never actually out and you are never blessed with the sun's rays. This seemingly small thing of waking up to sunlight put us both in good spirits. 

Holly called her Dad to ask what the mysterious skyward orb was. He said the Sun needed to be worshipped. He was right.

One of our lot took this super picture, though I never really saw this much light

On a day in Finland that it had been -25 outside, a child said confidently that he knew about cold because he's 'from a place called England'. I humoured him because I am nice sometimes, and then played a game where the children guess how much colder it is in Lapland than the UK. They all got it wrong. STUPID KIDS.

I appreciated his comment however. We do have a national identity of living in a cold country- when I fellow travellers meet me I am often asked 'How's the rain?'. But the truth is that not only is England fairly mild compared to other places, it can't deal with what happens when it really gets cold.

This is also a phenomenon that I think we understand as a nation: England can't cope with the snow! The roads pack up and schools close pretty quickly when the ground turns white. In my teacher days I recall logging on to the school website in bed and joyfully seeing it was a snow day. Back to sleep it is!

The first shower I had back in London I made sure my hair did not get wet as I knew I'd be going out soon. But hold on- in England there's no risk of my hair freezing or my brain turning into an ice cube. That's a habit I need to drop now as the danger is removed.

Being back is something that I am enjoying and I am genuinely appreciating the sunlight and mild weather. Yes I'll be off to the Alps soon, but for now I'll bask in the lights of the English winter.

"Burning eyes" was said frequently when back in the UK.
Credit to exocomics.com

Have a great New Year wherever you are, and I'll catch you in 2015!


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