All we need to fix a soggy summer?
All we need to fix a soggy summer?

… hang on to it and wait for a sunny day is my advice if you’re living in Christchurch and hanging out for the heat of summer to return. Even some blue sky would be nice.

Now while I have mentioned before that I resent talking about the weather it’s getting serious around here. In fact, you know things aren’t good when your friends starting posting comments asking where summer has gone (“I haven’t got it, have you”, “Who had it last?”, “I saw it last week – does that count?”) and particularly when you start consulting the forecast to plan your washing days (What happened to summers where you could put your washing out after work and it would be dry before tea time? Sorry is this making me sound like an old woman? No offence to old woman by the way, who are currently being made famous/insulted by Grabaseat).

So the summer in Christchurch is currently rubbish but as the old saying goes when life hands you a lemon, you make lemonade. Preferably before someone squeezes it and you get lemon juice to the eye.

Seriously there is nothing we can do about it. In fact, I’m often overcome by the pointlessness of talking about the weather because we have absolutely no control over it. Of course, it doesn’t stop us talking about it as if we could. We are mad aren’t we?

So to make lemonade, metaphorically speaking, and avoid this summer-less summer stealing your inner sunshine there are a few things you need to do:

  • Stop reading those incredibly negative press releases from NIWA – What is it about those guys? Do they enjoy depressing an entire country with their theories of how La Nina will fight with El Nino for supremacy and all we get out of it is a soggy summer? Come on people at least invest in a marketing team who can let us down gently!
  • Proceed with your plans regardless of the weather – Got a wedding but thinking of cancelling it because of the weather? While that could be a convenient excuse I say press on. If it’s pouring down with rain and a fierce southerly is adding a minus 5 wind chill factor, and people show up then you will be ecstatic that you actually have friends who care that much about you (deja vu?). Or planning a family day at the beach and dark clouds are looming? Defy the weather, shake your fist at those naughty gangs of condensed moisture and go anyway. You will be a champion in my books (just like my dad who would make us go wandering in the bush on the wettest days – of course we lived in Westport so you learn to ignore the weather pretty quickly).
  • Relish those patches of sun – Is the sun peeking out from behind a bank of angry storm clouds? Rush out into the street and dance like a midget on P, but without all the negative social repercussions. Expose yourself to that Vitamin D dispenser and enjoy those 30 seconds like they were your last. Strange I should mention this actually because on Sunday I headed out for a surf down here at New Brighton where we had surf of epic proportions, and I am pleased to advise that I even got myself a little bit of sunburn, I kid you not! If I was a midget on P I would’ve danced in the street for shizzle.

So no more of this ‘we’re having such a lousy summer’ grizzling. Everybody snap out of it! Join me as I put out a second load of washing in iffy-looking weather … and then we can go visit your parents.

Aussie relative hit the arty Arts Centre in Christchurch
A 'once in 20 years' photo op with long lost cousins

Christchurch Arts Centre - A great place to stop pedestrian traffic!
Christchurch Arts Centre - A great place to stop pedestrian traffic!

Last stop on the great Christchurch tour - The dead heart
Asher looks touristy outside the Christchurch Cathedral

Here to appreciate our grand display of summer last weekend was some of Aussie relatives. Kevin, Popsy, Courtney, Lauren, Tenielle, Nathan and Asher (hope I got the names right) have never visited Christchurch before (and possibly never will again after the spectacularly overcast Saturday we had). They were back on the cruise that night heading south where I will be feeling a certain amount of angst if they get sunny weather down there, after what I said about the fair city of Dunedin. Great to see you guys – come back soon; global warming should have kicked in by then.

When life hands you a lemon …
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