Out for my lunchtime stroll today I was struck by the thought that maybe as a people we actually like to muddle through and resist the temptation to prepare for anything. I looked at the way people were dressed, alright there are a lot of foreigners in Boston and they're no better but it's quite obvious that very few people have done anything about their wardrobe to cope with the bad weather we've had. I thought of those mountaineers in Victorian times attempting to climb snowy peaks dressed in tweeds and brogues and a tie of course. Maybe that's the way we like to be, gloriously unready and then we get through somehow.
Take motorways, they're grudgingly built 50 years late, at 100 times the original cost. Our houses are built to a price not a standard, you could say that about a lot of things.
We laugh at the continentals with their snow blowers and silly hats. Studded tyres and triple glazing. Where's your backbone? We won the war didn't we and we weren't ready for that. What's that? Your neighbour died of hypothermia? Skidded off the road?
Maybe one day we'll learn.
Picture courtesy of BBC website.
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