On
a May morning I was walking to the train station, girlfriend in hand, and it
was a cold, windy day. Remember it was over 20 degrees a few weeks ago? Well,
this was the following week when our thermometer was hitting an impressive 8
degrees in London. There was a bitter wind, and I had salvaged my thick shirts
from the other end of the wardrobe; it was that cold. I ventured outside on a
daring mission to hand my University coursework in. Living just yards away from
the Thames means that our little area of Woolwich gets hit by even stronger,
unprovoked winds. And in the bitter wind, I at one point even had to do the zip
up on my coat; not an easy task in the wind.
In
our walk to the train station, we walked towards two female teenagers; the sort
that often get branded as 'yobs' and 'chavs' in the media. They were quietly
gossiping amongst themselves. I had stopped to do my coat up in view of the
pair, with my bag banging against my leg. We continued on, and just as we began
to pass them, one of the two women erupted, and with added profanities, stated
that:
"People wearing coats makes it looked cold!"
Like
British people do, me and the other half carried on walking past, quietly bemused.
Her sentence then began to properly sink in. "People wearing coats makes
it look cold". That is what she said. I looked back. I looked forward.
Again I turn backwards. SHE was wearing a thick coat with fur bursting
out of it. And Ugg boots. She looked like a bear who had stumbled onto a make-up counter in a department store.
I was wearing a thin blue coat and Converses. I was dressed correctly for the
weather, whereas she was dressed for freezing temperatures, and SHE has
the cheek to moan about me wearing a coat.
