Deckchairs and unicorns in Brussels - Kristina Chetcuti

Every month I correspond with the accounts department of this newspaper, and thanks to this exchange of e-mails, month in, month out, for more than a decade now, I’ve kept in touch with reliable, dependable Roberta. Aside from the boring invoicing, we get to brief each other about the little ups and downs of our lives.

This winter, my e-mails have had their fair share of lamentation on the weather – the never-ending cold spells have made me miserable indeed. In our mail last month – the week after that hurricane storm – she told me by way of encouragement that “when we speak again it will be spring”. 

Ah, Roberta, I am not so sure! Spring is next week and I am typing this while embracing my hot water bottle. This has been the most wretched of winters. Arctic outside, icy inside; biting chill silently but cruelly creeping under my skin, and making my bones rattle and my body shiver.

I shouldn’t shiver really; while googling ‘how to keep warm’ I came across a report by the Wilderness Medical Centre in Utah, US, which says that trembling because of the cold won’t make you feel warmer. They also suggest that hot toddies are not as efficient either. Spoilsports! They clearly never...