Seoul -10, Kirkkonummi +5, AL +38

Seems that the vast heavens have sent all the cold high pressure air from the Eurasian land mass to the east, so that tomorrow on Sunday, a morning temperature of -10 is expected in Seoul (see Hankyoreh). Meanwhile we here in the European north are wondering when the winter will actually start and will we be able to ski at all this year. It has three times snowed so that the earth has been covered all white, and three times all the snow has melted away. In times like this I'm reminded of Koreans' perception that it's cold as hell here - wish it were so, and I'd be almost happy to exchange the weather with Korea right now. Nothing (well, perhaps not "nothing") is more depressing than a warm winter with little or no snow: wet shoes, no snow to lighten the darkness, dirty slushy streets... So with the exceptionally warm winter, it's perhaps surprising that I should have a severe cold. Nothing new in fact; some Koreans used to ask me half teasingly how come someone from such a cold country get cold so easily. Perhaps we (or me) have been always so warmly dressed as children so that we never got toughened. And now back to bed.