In less than a week the family and I will have relocated from Singapore to Auckland. My top concern is a very British affliction.
When we get off the plane in New Zealand we will have no jobs, no home, no schools sorted, no permanent visa for me the list seams to just go on. I’m not worried about these things as I’m sure we will sort them out in time. But there is one thing we can do nothing about. The weather.
Yes I know it’s stereotypical of us Brits to talk about the weather. But I think this time I can justify it and it’s not just a way to avoid talking about feelings or other touchy feely stuff.
You see we are arriving in winter, last Christmas we landed in Wellington in what was supposed to be summer. We froze! Thankfully with the drive north things got warmer.
Luckily we are moving to the north which should have the better weather. The flip-side to this is that all the houses aren’t built for cold weather. So for a few weeks a year it can be colder inside than out!
This is all standard stuff, but where my real concern is my two little girls. Both of whom have lived all their lives over 25 degrees and normally in the 30s. Their only cold experience (except air conditioned cinemas) was 2 weeks in Melbourne during June last year. Then when we were at our friends house after landing, she asked to go outside to warm up!
An old boss of mine used to say that there’s no such thing as bad weather just inappropriate clothing. Well my youngest is going to struggle. She finds it a hassle to wear pants, never mind long trousers, jumpers and socks. Note to self, check if the youngest even has socks……
I believe your wife is on top of the sock situation 🙂
But yes! It’ll be strange for them for sure. I remember the first time T was cold and she got really cranky and we couldn’t work it out for the longest time and the whole problem was basically that she didn’t have the awareness or the words to express, “I’m cold!” We’d got used to her being able to tell us she was hungry, or tired, etc, but it was like dealing with a newborn baby when it came to feelings of discomfort over the cold!
Luckily she picked it up pretty quickly, and I hope your two adapt as well – because they’ll be cold a lot longer than we were!
I was buying socks yesterday……
Kids do adapt just would have been easier moving to the summer 🙂
Yes. You should really have timed your layoff differently.
We might be moving to England soon and I’m worried about the weather! My kids have also lived all their lives in hot and humid Singapore. And they dont like to wear trousers, socks, shoes… Last year we went to Melbourne in November but it was quite cold and it rained a lot… One day they totally refused to wear shoes and jackets.They insisted on wearing t-shirts, shorts and flip-flops. It was raining and freezing cold. I wanted to stay in our warm hotel room but they soon got bored. So I decided to take them to the library which was only a short distance from our hotel. I got scolded by strangers for not bundling the kids up!
You have timed it about as badly as we did, moving at the end of summer! Good luck.
We were in Melbourne in June last year and our daughter asked to go outside to warm up 🙂