My little house is usually toasty warm, no matter the weather – and the weather has been mild for the season.  But during the night I woke up cold. Orlando came and snuggled up tight against me and purred himself and me back into sleep.

I got up this morning and the house felt cold.  I turned on the heat pump and it stuttered and shook and vigorously blew cold air about the room.  I turned it off!

I dragged the heater from my craft room into the living area and turned it on full blast.  It still felt cold.

Though not yet light, I opened the curtain in the kitchen so Orlando could sit in his accustomed place and stare out at the awakening world.

In the pre-dawn light I thought I saw white rooftops through that opened curtain.

I blinked and looked again – snow.

Snow!

Snow??

It’s too early in the season.  It doesn’t snow here until at least the end of July.

I want to switch places with Char from Lesie’s World .

Lesie’s World is Jamaica where it is always summer and doesn’t get icy cold like this – and I know there is no snow – I saw that movie!

Lesie’s blog is full of the colour and flavour of Jamaica……… most especially the post called  A Likkle Literary Taste A Mi Culcha.  Lesie’s blog allows  me soak in the colours and smell the aromas and taste the flavour of Jamaica.  When I wander around her Thrift Shop and read about her daily life I fall in love with a world so colourfuil, so vibrant and warm and so very different from mine…….

I don’t really want to swap places with Char, I want her to be there too, for many reasons:

• I will need a translator, I’ve been practising my Jamaican  patois but we all know book-learnin’ is nuthin’ like the real thing!!
• She knows where all the cool places are
• She knows the markets and the landmarks and all about mangoes ……
• I like Char!

And though Char once expressed an interest in visiting my little country here near the bottom of the world with it’s odd wild life, this is not the time of the year for someone who lives in perpetual summer to make the journey – hell, even our high summer would feel wintry to her I expect.

No, it’s grey and cold and the weather is coming straight off the Antarctic Ice Shelf to our little part of the southern ocean and the snow is turning to sleet and the wild seas are breaking up our coastline and a favourite promenade walk is in danger of being undermined and swept away – and she hasn’t yet learned to speak our lingo!

These are some things every visitor should know:

• New Zealand is properly pronounced ‘Neew Zillan‘
• Leading statements are made as questions
• Every second sentence has ‘eh?’ at the end
• Lynn of Tawa is an historical cultural icon, if you can understand her you have a good chance of getting by – here is a link to a brief You Tube view, I suggest you turn on the captions:
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ZZe4O7Ct8mo

Good Luck!

I’m on way Char – it’s a long walk but I’ll make it one day.