Who Turned Down The Heat?

Minus 12˚C. Are you for real!?

Obviously the further it dips below the freezing point of zero, the more uncomfortable it gets. But the worst of the lows will be at night or when i'm fast asleep, so i shouldn't complain.

So on a positive note, i've finally learnt how to deal with temperatures hovering just above zero. In fact, on a sunny day it can be rather nice.


But it's so cold right now, even the ice is curling up because it doesn't even want to stick to the frozen metal bars below the handrail. I don't blame it.

Last year, just before Christmas, it hit a low of minus 15˚C and it was horrible. I remember this because J and i were walking around the Christmas Market in Mainz and neither one of us could feel our face or fingers. And if my memory serves me right, i think the sun was even out that day.

It's now only mid-December but it feels like it's been cold forever. "Meteorologists are forecasting a harsh winter" [source]

Great.

Although more beneficial for skiers, i clicked on a link that lead me to Europe's snow forecast [as of yesterday]. For those interested Mac users using Firefox, i would advise you to switch browsers to Safari momentarily. The site doesn't seem to like Firefox so much.

[source]

[source]

On the site i also managed to pinpoint Bielefeld [where the two lines intersect], a city about 22 km away and North-East from where i live.

It looks like i'm on the arse end of the snow dump which could mean another 10 to 25 cm of more snow.

Uh... yay?

Perhaps i should be grateful we don't have as much snow here. I've seen some images of cities around Germany that have been hit real bad.

My only tip for any of my European readers who are hating/enjoying the frosty temperatures is to not switch off your heaters.

The idea is to keep the core temperature of your home at a steady 20˚C. Not only will that prevent the walls from cooling down which in turn takes forever to heat back up [i speak from experience] but apparently it also goes against the build up of mold.

***

In other news, i just transferred the compulsory two months security deposit for our 3-room apartment in Cologne.

Yay for online banking!

And later on today J's organised for some guy from a moving company to come by our place to see how much crap stuff we have and give us a quotation.

Nineteen days to go. I should seriously start packing soon.