…consists of wearing warmies, a raincoat, and braving driving rain. No wonder the countryside around Leamington Spa is so green and the beautiful flower baskets everywhere are so brilliant. It’s all that rain they get.
It has been bucketing down all day, so Anjulie scrapped her plans to take us on a scenic walk through the pretty town where she lives, and we are now hunkered down in her house, to keep warm and dry.
Knowing the vagaries of the English climate, however, it will probably be lovely and sunny tomorrow.
One advantage of the cold, rainy weather has been to reduce the amount of highly inappropriate flesh that is otherwise on display in England the moment the sun shines. You would not believe the way some people (un)dress in this country, the second it is th slightest bit warm. And clearly none of them ever looks at themselves critically in a mirror before going out.
Or am I reacting increasingly like an Indian ?
I think I must be. The children have both told me on this trip not to stare so much at people (= Great Indian Habit), so I think a sort of cultural osmosis is taking place.
Not osmosis, my dear. It’s good old neo-imperialism at work. After invading England with curries and chicken tikkas, India has now obviously converted one of its most attractive Yorkshire roses (stop me if I’m being too flattering). Fitting revenge, if you ask me, for 200 years of colonialism, the crushing of the Indian Mutiny (or the First War of Independence, depending on your standpoint), etc.