This Side of the Pond

I don’t suppose you noticed that it was a bit chilly over Christmas? I know I did because, in all my days, I have never experienced temperatures like it.

But when I told my mother that it was 50 degrees warmer in my fridge than it was outside the door, she scoffed. When I complained that I’d had to put socks on inside the house, she wasn’t impressed, even though she knows full well that socks are my lifelong nemesis and I have the same relationship with keeping them on my feet as your average toddler.

My father meanwhile responded to an image of the predicted temperatures with a simple, “Happy...