It's pretty cold outside. I nearly froze my ears off cycling to work this morning (though that's my own fault for putting my woolly hat in the wash last night instead of putting up with the smell).
I'm from the North of England originally (Liverpool to be more precise) and as such, I think I handle cold better than most people I meet down here in sunny Guildford. In fact I often feel too hot (I feel too hot now in the office during a quiet lunchtime).
My good friend OJ used to work at the same company as I do. He's from Australia, so there were times when I would be out at lunchtime in a t-shirt and shorts and he would be in his thick winter coat and a scarf to keep warm. Given he was brought up in a much warmer climate, this is totally understandable (though I still laughed at him!).
What I don't understand is that whilst walking around town just a few minutes ago, I saw a few women dressed as though it is summer. Short skirts, the lot. Do they actually feel the cold or have they just learned to ignore it because (for them) it's better to look good than be warm? Or following OJ's reasons for feeling cold, are they from some frozen arctic wasteland and therefore used to a much colder climate?
Most women I know seem to feel cold more than I do. My fiancée often uses me as a hot water bottle at night to warm her frozen feet. My mum (who was born in the same hospital as me and lived in the same house for 21 years) used to complain about being cold indoors, turning the heating on when I was sweating.
Due to this anecdotal evidence, I grew up believing (probably incorrectly) that women feel cold more than men do, so who are these women who can wander around wearing next to nothing in mid December?
I'm confused!
I agree. I admire the way girls insist (especially here in Liverpool) on braving the cold wearing insanely short skirts and little, belly exposing tops for no other other reason for men to gawp at them. Maybe the Ugg boots they all wear warm the blood to near boiling point.
Some people have a bit more, erm, insulation than others. Fat Geordie bastards are testament to this as they stand on windy terraces proudly displaying their gargantuan, brown ale fed, pot bellies.
I have no doubt that women feel the cold more than men do, probably to do with their ovaries or something. Except, as has stated elsewhere, when tottering through a windy city centre after too many blue WKDs.
Thinking about it, there may be a biological reason for it. Men need to keep their knackers cool for best sperm production so maybe it's an evolutionary thing that we generally deal with cold better than women (apart from when tottering through a windy city centre after too many blue WKDs).
Do any women read this blog and can offer a counterpoint or is this chauvanist central?
Wow :) I got a special mention!
I have the same problem of having to be the in-bed heater for the wife. In winter (and in the whole 2 years I was in the UK) Amy felt like an ice cube when she got into bed. There's really nothing quite like having freezing butt-cheeks and ice-cold toes wedged up against you in the middle of the night! Bloody awful. Anyway, she always felt colder than me, but I actually felt the cold more than she did. She seemed to deal with the lower temperatures better than me despite requiring me to keep her warm.
I don't think that there's any hard and fast rule. I think the ability to deal with the cold is affected by your genes, your location, what you're used to, how fat/skinny you are, how active you are, and your diet.
Now, I'm off to turn the heater on - it's only 29 degrees C today :(
Yeah, I agree there's no rules. I'm just talking about trends and generalisations.
It's probably only a little above 29 degrees F here today. I love freezing fog.