The unbearable weight of winter

Two weeks in Cape Verde, in West Africa offered an enormous relief from winter's deepest temperature plunge. It was already bad that December battered us physically especially when the first major snowfall came and halted life into a state of immobility. While the Nordic countries was frozen in ice and most of Europe - including the sunny southern countries of Spain, Italy and Portugal encountered a winter uncommon in these places - Cape Verde seemed completely untroubled by climactic temper.

Upon returning to Stockholm in mid-January, the winter cold's assault appeared unabated. The two weeks of perfect bliss in Cape Verde had suddenly turned into many grim realities. First, it was the discovery that one of our cars was stolen from the parking lot - an old Ford car actually with plenty of carpentry tools at the luggage compartment had fancied som thieves. The second bad news was that, the M/S Tranan boat that my other half

drives went aground, its engine busted in the icy waters. And thirdly, the neighbour's garage near our summer house collapsed from the weight of snow.

The mass transport system consisting of the underground train and buses - which is usually effective with schedules are either delayed or derailed because the snow plowers cannot cope with the job of clearing the roads and tracks. Driving one's car is a life and death adventure and it does not matter how carefully you drive if the others are careless, they could collide with yours or drive you to the canal. By the way, with a heavy snowfall there is no way of knowing where the roadsides are and where the canals and ditches begin.

The working hours are much longer and tedious. The thought that the end of the day could be some happy meetings with friends at a pub or a restaurant becomes less palatable at the thought of coming home late and getting oppressed by the cold. It is not just the coldness of the weather that makes life immobile. It is also the lack of light, of sun that caresses your skin as when you are in a beach and feeling the warmth of sunshine in a state that reminds you of how it is to fall in love, to be in love. But the real consolation is that, the long winter nights do offer a much longer time for huggings and being huddled in a perfect state of unity.#