there is cold and there is cold

Every time I dear to mention that it is getting a bit cold or that I am freezing, I am reminded of the fact that I come from Finland and should, thus be used to the cold. Yet, I am convinced that there is difference in colds between countries.

The early spring that we had here got scared of something and ran away leaving us with rain and temperatures that barely reach positive numbers. Every morning, when I hop on to my bike I hope that the sky won’t open and pour down its collection of icy water until I have made it to school. It will.

By the time I get home at night, my coat is still damp and fingers freezing. I put on my pyjamas, a fleece, jogging pants, woollen socks and cover myself with a blanket. Despite all this effort the cold will not go away and I can hear my muscles screaming from the strain that my “relaxing” break in front of a silly series is supposed to give them. I soon give up and climb into bed, under two duvets (with my layers and my blanket). I have a nice, big bed but it is currently nothing but a waste of space as I will be in a little curly ball in one corner. But the cold will not go away.

In the morning, when my alarm goes off, I hold on to my blanket tightly, put my toes into slippers and jump into the kitchen to make coffee. If I keep my face above the kettle I can’t see myself breathing. I think that, if I wasn’t always in such a rush I would stay in the shower for the rest of the day. But I won’t because I can’t. When I get out I am steaming. I mean really steaming - the way when you do when you run from the sauna into the snow.

On my way out I put on my coat – still damp – run downstairs and hop onto my bike, hoping that the sky won’t open and pour down its collection of icy water until I have made it to school.

I don’t mind the cold. In fact, cold but sunny mornings can be nice, especially when there is snow. It is the cold that never leaves that I don’t like. It goes through you, into you and doesn’t leave until summer. It is the cold that makes everything stay wet and mouldy I don’t like. It is the cold that makes you want to stay in bed and not get up until June that I don’t like. It is the cold that makes your morning coffee cold before you are half way through that I don’t like.

So, I can deal with the cold that goes away with a cup of hot chocolate but not with the one that follows you to bed and eats its way to ones heart.

There is a difference between colds.