Living amongst the mutant race
Friday, 3 February 2012 
17 Comments
I think the British are some kind of a mutant superior race when it comes to handling freezing temperatures.
It’s been hovering around 0°C for the past week or two and this is what I see on the streets:
- At least half of the people don’t wear hats
- 90% of women wear the same shoes they would wear in the summer – ballet flats, etc.
- 100% of men wear the same shoes they would wear in the summer
- Teenagers do not wear coats
- Teenagers do not wear scarves or god forbid – hats
- An occasional adult walks by wearing a skirt and BARE legs
- An occasional adult walks by wearing flip flops
The mind boggles.
Thank goodness babies seem to be dressed appropriately at this time of the year. A month ago most of them didn’t wear hats…
So what is it that makes the British resistant to cold? Can’t they feel it at all? Even the skinny ones??
Of my 3 homes, it's not hard to guess where I'd rather be right now...
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The überstylish (Mostly) Yummy Mummy provided proof to my Mutant Race Theory in the afternoon:
Strong stuff, these locals :D
i know it is bloody ridiculous! is like english are cold proof?? the hr manager in my office opens the window all the time! that is pissing me off as i am cold.
My English husband opens the windows all the time at home… grrrrr…
(He used to be a hr manager :D :D)
In Estonia :D
I don`t wear hat either, it`s not that cold.
But yes.. it makes me cry when I see lil kids without hats and scarves.. I guess I will never get used to it..
You don’t wear a hat?? I wear one from September until April – I hate it when my head is cold.
That’s so funny! I live in Italy and see the opposite – little children so wrapped up they can hardly move and it’s about 15 degrees! I’m actually a cold soul myself so always wrap up but I let my son run about as he wants (mostly) cos he doesn’t seem to feel the cold and other mums think he has robust Northern blood! And don’t get me started on the bare legs here… you don’t go out with Bare legs in April or October, no matter if it’s in the mid 20s cos it’s still not the right season.
In Estonia people do tend to overdo it a bit as well when it comes to dressing their kids (babies wear hats that cover ears even in the summer, in case of DRAFTS), but here it’s the other extreme.
I have to disagree. I have noticed that there are more people wearing warm hats, scarfs and gloves than last year, even teenagers :)
Yes, my husband is also wearing same shoes as he wore during the summer (I don’t mean flipflops) as what’s the point of buying wooly winter boots when you might only wear them for a couple of days out of the whole year. If it snows, he won’t be able to get into the office anyway so then he could wear hiking boots (something you won’t otherwise wear with a suit in the office)
I also think, if you live in London and travel a lot on the underground then you would get sooo hot if you wore a warm winter coat, hat, gloves and winter boots (at least I felt like melting) regardless of how cold it is outside.
Anyway I truly hope there will be some snow soon or all the money we have spent on winter tyres and our child’s snowboots and coat will be waisted and none of the things are cheap!
PS. I don’t wear a hat either, it’s not even -5 yet :)
Oh yeah, if you find an answer to that one, let me know. They amazed me constantly!
Loving the new look!!!
8yo played a rugby match in shorts yesterday afternoon, came home blue and needed de-frosting. X
Funny, just after having read your post I passed by a school playground. It’s cold here now, the notorious Siberian cold front has arrived. So I’m talking about minus 6 and 7 which is REALLY cold according to local standards. Anyway, I was wrapped up, hat, mittens all that stuff and then I looked into the school yard and started shivering – most kids were huddling close together with no hats, no gloves…lucky they had their coats on.
Haa, you made me laugh so much. I have been wondering about it myself lately. Every morning I go to work I see some men jogging in shorts… Also I will never get used to the fact that they don´t properly heat their houses, coming from Estonia you kind of expect that it´s always warm and cozy indoors.
Yeah, insulating houses is not a priority here. It’s such a waste of natural resources to heat an uninsulated house…
I totally agree. How do they do it? I have lots of socks. It is part of my survival kit over here!
It’s odd – the Brits refuse to wear suitable, seasonally-appropriate clothing, but at the same time they all complain about how “bloody freezing out there” it is as soon as the temperature drops below +10C. That’s what all my colleagues used to do at least.
Wow, things have changed since I last lived in England (2000). Everyone wrapped up warmly. It’s one of the things I notice about America, but people don’t need to dress warmly here, because they just go from warm house to warm car to warm venue. They never need be outside for more than a minute at most. It’s quite common for people to run their cars for a few minutes before getting into it, to warm it up.
Well, this is how they conquered the world:)
Have you ever been to either Newcastle or Swansea? Want to talk about people (mainly women/girls) under dressing. Blue (of course with a tinge of orange) legs are so not my thing.