It's really getting cold now

I understand the weather a bit better now.  It's like when I moved to Queensland, I was used to Melbourne drizzle so when I saw it rain I would excitedly exclaim "it's raining!", the response from my work colleagues, in their Queensland drawl, was "that's not rain".  Apparently it was not heavy enough to be called rain, rain happened in summer, in the wet season.

Well, the same thing has happened here.  Everytime we say "it's cold today" we get responses like "you haven't seen cold yet", "wait until it's 50 below", "oh, we are having such a mild winter" etc etc.  It's strange though because I seem to be a whole lot less prepared for the weather than the Labradorians I see out and about, they are kitted out in massive jackets, mits, beanies, balaclavas while I still try and dress as light as I possibly can for that quick dash into Walmart.  I must admit that my fur boots are an essential item but a fleece jacket is normally OK for the 10m walk from the car to the Wee College doors. 

I have had comments though, "put on a jacket will you, you're Australian" or "OMG he's only wearing crocs!", it's all in good fun and for me it's more out of laziness, I find it too difficult to get the kids in the car, strap them in, look over my shoulder to reverse out the driveway with a massive jacket and gloves on, it really does restrict your ability to twist (or even move) in the car.

Anyway, these past two weeks were actually cold.  When I say I understand the weather better now, I have realised that the 50 below they refer to is normally with wind chill.  I kept looking at my phone or our temperature guage out the back window and seeing -20 or -30, maybe even -34 so I thought that the comments I was getting were right, it's just not that cold yet.  Then school was cancelled a few times due to cold weather, I checked it out on The Weather Network and I saw that there was a windchill warning.  For example, today is a lovely day, it's sunny and looks like you could just go outside with a t-shirt and shorts on, however the weather report at 8am was -28 but -41 with windchill!! Yesterday was -50degC with windchill.  Yes, it's getting cold now....