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deird_ljYou know how you can sometimes be watching a movie, or reading a book, from somewhere in another country - and you suddenly get completely jolted out of the story by a difference-from-your-country that you'd never really realised was different in other countries?
...that sounds confusing. Let me give an example.
This happened to me today. The book I'm currently reading is set in England (I think), and I've read quite a few books set in England, so I was just nodding along, picturing the English bits, and going "oh, yep, that's going to be different, and that's the same as what we have here, but that bit's going to be different too..."
And then they went to a farm.
A farm with cats.
And it took me about five minutes to stop my mind from reeling at this new and weird information, and get back to the story.
In Australia, you see, you would never ever ever have cats outside at night on a farm. (Actually, you'd never have them outside at night at all, but certainly not on a farm.) Cats kill natives. Cats are inside animals - urban inside animals.
It really freaked me out!
Also, there was the whole weather thing.
One of the characters mentioned that it was mid-summer, and so there were only about five hours of darkness at night-time.
Now, I'm aware that in Europe, it gets really-really-dark-almost-all-day in winter (have experienced this one myself), and correspondingly, really-really-light-almost-all-night in summer.
But I'm also used to the fact that, when there are short night-times, it's a lot hotter than during the short day-time bit of the year.
In winter, it gets dark at um... maybe 6pm. And there's a maximum temperature of about 10 degrees.
In Germany over winter, it got dark at about 3:30pm. There was also a maximum temperature of about negative 10 degrees.
(Ergo, the less daylight there is, the colder it is. Which fits my experience of Aussie summer and winter, too.)
In summer here, it gets dark at approximately 8pm. And there's a maximum temperature of about 40 degrees.
(This is yet more proof of the whole more-daylight-equals-hotter-weather thing. So far, there is nothing in my experience to disprove this.)
And then, the book goes and mentions that it's mid-summer, and it's getting dark at about 10pm - or maybe 11pm.
HUGE KERSLAMM! AS BRAIN RUNS HEADLONG INTO SOMETHING IT DOESN'T UNDERSTAND!!!!!!!
more daylight = hotter temperatures. This is fundamental to my understanding of the world.
And therefore, if England is getting more daylight than Australia, they should be getting hotter weather too. They should be dealing with 60 degree days, and 40 degree nights.
...and they're not.
I'm aware of the whole sun-is-closer-to-Australia-and-thus-feels-hotter-here idea - really I am. But I still can't quite convince my imagination that it would work...
On a completely unrelated topic, I am expanding my job hunt.
Rail jobs have almost completely disappeared from the online job ads at the moment - hardly surprising, really. So I've been looking into other work.
And I've just applied for six jobs as a nanny.
It makes sense, sort of. I have quite a bit of experience looking after kids - and I also keep the same hours as them! I'd be able to get to bed at a reasonable time!
...and then get up in the middle of the night to deal with nightmares, dirty nappies, and occasionally vomiting - but I'm looking on the bright side.
Wish me luck!
...that sounds confusing. Let me give an example.
This happened to me today. The book I'm currently reading is set in England (I think), and I've read quite a few books set in England, so I was just nodding along, picturing the English bits, and going "oh, yep, that's going to be different, and that's the same as what we have here, but that bit's going to be different too..."
And then they went to a farm.
A farm with cats.
And it took me about five minutes to stop my mind from reeling at this new and weird information, and get back to the story.
In Australia, you see, you would never ever ever have cats outside at night on a farm. (Actually, you'd never have them outside at night at all, but certainly not on a farm.) Cats kill natives. Cats are inside animals - urban inside animals.
It really freaked me out!
Also, there was the whole weather thing.
One of the characters mentioned that it was mid-summer, and so there were only about five hours of darkness at night-time.
Now, I'm aware that in Europe, it gets really-really-dark-almost-all-day in winter (have experienced this one myself), and correspondingly, really-really-light-almost-all-night in summer.
But I'm also used to the fact that, when there are short night-times, it's a lot hotter than during the short day-time bit of the year.
In winter, it gets dark at um... maybe 6pm. And there's a maximum temperature of about 10 degrees.
In Germany over winter, it got dark at about 3:30pm. There was also a maximum temperature of about negative 10 degrees.
(Ergo, the less daylight there is, the colder it is. Which fits my experience of Aussie summer and winter, too.)
In summer here, it gets dark at approximately 8pm. And there's a maximum temperature of about 40 degrees.
(This is yet more proof of the whole more-daylight-equals-hotter-weather thing. So far, there is nothing in my experience to disprove this.)
And then, the book goes and mentions that it's mid-summer, and it's getting dark at about 10pm - or maybe 11pm.
HUGE KERSLAMM! AS BRAIN RUNS HEADLONG INTO SOMETHING IT DOESN'T UNDERSTAND!!!!!!!
more daylight = hotter temperatures. This is fundamental to my understanding of the world.
And therefore, if England is getting more daylight than Australia, they should be getting hotter weather too. They should be dealing with 60 degree days, and 40 degree nights.
...and they're not.
I'm aware of the whole sun-is-closer-to-Australia-and-thus-feels-hotter-here idea - really I am. But I still can't quite convince my imagination that it would work...
On a completely unrelated topic, I am expanding my job hunt.
Rail jobs have almost completely disappeared from the online job ads at the moment - hardly surprising, really. So I've been looking into other work.
And I've just applied for six jobs as a nanny.
It makes sense, sort of. I have quite a bit of experience looking after kids - and I also keep the same hours as them! I'd be able to get to bed at a reasonable time!
...and then get up in the middle of the night to deal with nightmares, dirty nappies, and occasionally vomiting - but I'm looking on the bright side.
Wish me luck!
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no subject
Date: 2009-03-11 04:41 am (UTC)Although I think outdoor cats are more common in England than the US, they're still prevalent over here. Not my kitty, though. She's indoors-only. It's safer and healthier.
And good luck with the job hunt! :)
no subject
Date: 2009-03-11 07:10 am (UTC)Anyway :-p
our cat was a suburban cat and a fine mouser.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-11 09:12 am (UTC)We have this thing: if it's not native, and it's not a farm animal (by which I mean cows, horses, pigs, sheep, dogs...), it's probably not something we like having outside.
As
no subject
Date: 2009-03-11 08:06 pm (UTC)They let the spiders eat them?
no subject
Date: 2009-03-11 11:51 am (UTC)not only on farms, either. There are thousands of strays... all our cats were originally strays (if you count in-utero as stray).
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Date: 2009-03-11 04:14 pm (UTC)Still, I do know lots of people who let their cats outside. Like I said, it's still prevalent here. I just recall reading some stats sometime that it's not as prevalent as in England.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-11 10:38 pm (UTC)