The Weather
Being an English bloke I feel obliged to talk about the weather. It's a duty passed down from rainy generation to generation...
The English are justified I think in forever moaning about the weather. We weren't blessed with tropical temperatures and while green lush fields can be muddily appealing, I believe the vast majority of us would prefer a Mediterranean or Pacific island climate.
What effect does the weather have on you? Does it have any??
I woke up this morning and sleepily peered out of the window. I rather happily saw a glistening white covering of snow. I find it amazing how colours and icy water can positively influence the mood...surely my day would be excellent after such a visually appealing and uplifting start?! Sadly not the case but the weather definitely effects one's mood I think, both negatively and positively.
In my home city it rains an average of 200 or so days per year and for want of a better word, 'grim' sums this up for me.
The rain can be therapeutic, tapping gently against a window, for example, but it's largely soul destroying....Leaving the house on a dark, dreary and rainy morning, only to leave the office after work in more dark, rainy drear...
How does or would this make you feel? I would guess against something positive but we are all different... different horses for different courses and all that...
In England we have numerous words and terms for the rain and weather, a few examples being: 'spitting' which means very light rain, 'drizzling' which is slightly heavier than that, 'rain shower' which is a short blast of heavy rain and we may also say the somewhat rude sounding 'it's pissing it down' which simply means constant heavy rain. A nice way to say the latter would be 'it's raining cats and dogs'.
Do you have any weird and interesting terms or expressions in your language for the weather?
Another word we have is 'sleet' which is basically a cross between rain and snow. I'm unsure why but I've always been quite fond of that word...
We have umpteen other words for the rain and if I was a betting man, I would wager that the English language has more words and expressions relating to the weather and rain specifically, than any other language in the world. If that is somehow proven wrong, please note that I'm not a gambler and only bet if I win ;)
'Bucketing it down', 'torrential rain', 'pouring it down' etc. etc... So what's the weather like in your neck of the woods? Are we the English justified in whining all the time about the rain? I think so but perhaps I'm wrong... I do think that having a moan and enjoying it sometimes is part of English culture...
