weather...Canada and the world

It seems to me that many people have given their experiences of the UK except this one-have any of you had to utter the words "its not THAT cold" only to have people look at you in that strange way?

For this reason I remember a joke I once heard that I think is pretty well true.

WEATHER AND REACTIONS:

10 degrees-the rest of the world would wear sweaters and jackets-Canadians would be sun tanning

5 degrees with heavy snow-everyone else inside their houses with the heaters to max-Canadians-start wearing shirts

0 degrees-snow everywhere-the rest of the world would prepare with addiquate food and water supplies-Canadians would start drinking beer outside to keep it cool.

-10 rest of the world-worried about cold winter-Canadians-worried about heatwave

-200-rest of the world-gone to live on Marsor other plannet-Canadians-four words "pretty cold out eh?"

Funny you should mention this as just this weekend I had a conversation just like it! I have a stall at a Farmer's market and it was a bit chilly out, everyone kept asking if I was cold, which I wasn't. I am doing another in December and I was told by the organiser that it was "going to be cold!" I told him I was Canadian, I could take it. He just looked at me and said I hadn't been here long enough to hate the weather.
I really find it fairly temperate here for most of the year. I don't even own winter boots, hat or gloves any more.

Perhaps I'm a bit of a strange one on this, but I actually find myself feeling MORE cold more often here in the winter. But it's a different kind of cold - it seeps right in to my bones and takes me FOREVER to warm up. Unlike when in Canada, I can't simply crawl under blankets or put on warmer clothes to warm up once I've got a chill - a hot bath or shower seem to be the only way to get warm again! I do know that I get much more cold on the surface in Canada (if you know what I mean) but I find it a whole lot easier to warm up once back inside!

I find England not so much cold but damp. It has that kind of dampness that is not there in North America which can be frustrating at times

I've always found the Toronto area horribly damp - certainly worse than south-east England.

I think the difference is that many buildings in the UK were just not constructed with modern standards of comfort in mind. For example, double glazing only became standard in the UK for domestic buildings within the last 15 years, and houses were still being built up to the late 1960s without central heating systems. Air conditioning systems in houses and flats are still a rarity.

Add to this the fact that more people in the UK live in older properties, which may not have been completely modernised and, yes, a UK winter can start to seem pretty uncomfortable!

That joke sums me up pretty well.....I spent last winter in Glasgow, and when everybody else was walking around in touques, gloves, scarves and BIG padded winter coats, I was still walking around in my Birkenstocks (no socks), no mittens, hat or jacket - just a light sweater. The looks I used to get when I would be walking down the street were hilarious!

Whenever anyone would tell me that it was cold outside I would just tell them that I used to live in Slave Lake where it routinly dropped to -40 or lower in the winter. Cold here in Elngland? It doesn't get cold!