James O'Brien

You know how I wrote the other day that Sydney-siders don’t cope very well when it rains? Well, we don’t cope very well with the cold either, it seems. Or at least we don’t know what to do when it suddenly turns cold.

As much as I knew I should, I didn’t really leave the house today, aside from a brief walk to the shops at about lunch time. It’s just too damned cold. Although the sun and blue skies appeared briefly today, I didn’t see much point. I had some music – still obsessed with Bo Kaspers Orkester – I had the interweb, and I had a blanket over my knees.

When I did venture out, though, I noticed how inappropriately we all dress for the cold in Sydney. Unlike Canberra, Hobart or Melbourne, where they all have a wardrobe full of winter clothes at the ready, we struggle by in Sydney. We don’t have the clothes necessary for that once-a-year cold day. And we certainly don’t have the umbrellas for those occasional wet days.

And from what I saw today, a lot of us remain in denial about the cold. While it was snowing at Katoomba, there were young men and women walking around the streets of Surry Hills wearing shorts and thongs, albeit with a large sloppy joe keeping their upper-halves warm.

The only other time I’ve found myself in a similar position was when I was living in Darwin. I had to come back to Sydney unexpectedly for a few days and so caught the plane wearing my “Darwin” clothes.

I hadn’t taken anything warm with me as I figured I’d leave my warm clothes in Sydney and use them when I got back. I couldn’t even buy anything vaguely warm in Darwin. The shops just didn’t sell the clothing I needed.

And so I just hopped on the plane in June dressed completely for a Darwin dry-season. By the time I got to Brisbane I was absolutely freezing, and immediately bought a rather nice RM Williams Sloppy Joe at Brisbane Airport.

I remembered at the time my former flatmate Cathy who was Darwin, who I shared with in Brisbane. She couldn’t believe we could leave the butter out on the bench during winter, such is the climatic contrast between the two places.

Grrr. I can’t believe it. This was the year I was supposed to skip winter entirely. And now it’s arrived back to haunt us in November. Grrr.