Winter in Christchurch

Submitted by ChrisFriday, 30th April 2010

I usually wouldn't spend company time writing about something completely irrelevant to Firetrust, but as I'm paid by the hour I figured why the hell not. Geography lesson, we live all the way down in Christchurch, New Zealand. For those who need it, here is a map.

Meteorology lesson, as the sun goes down the land cools, it takes all the heat back, cooling the air. So that is why the nights tend to be colder, and when it does that, it cools the air close to the ground forming a temperature inversion.

Now here in beautiful Christchurch, The Garden City, Sister City to 7 other cities around the world including the funky Seattle (really?) we happen to be surrounded by sloping terrain to the east and west.

Remembering your exhaustive meterology lesson let's expand. Cold air is dense, and when you have a dense thing over sloping terrain, the cold air drains down to the lower elevation. This means that the temperature inversion here is exaggerated, and when the sun goes down it gets colder quicker. It's also a great way to increase smog and other pollutions.

Here's a picture. Note : Not in scale.

If you want a proper picture, I suppose this one will do. Note : Probably in scale.

Now being massively underpaid, mostly due to my lack of commitment to work more than 15 hours a week, I have a (nice) little 1940s weatherboard house, no underfloor insulation, no double glazing, hardwood floors and generally all around a lack of things that are warm. If you haven't worked out where all this going yet, winter just plain sucks. So for the girlfriend, I thought I'd try to get her a decent set of pyjamas for the coming awesomeness that is our frozen heaven. I only had a few requirements Be made of fleece Be full length including covering the feet Have those little rubber pads on the feet so she doesn't fall and break a hip Several department stores later, I figured I'd find them online, several online stores later I figured I'd try the auction sites, several auction sites later I figured I'd go international. Eureka. Adult Footed Pajamas in fabrics from fleece and terry cloth to waffle knit and velvet. Given (although I pray every day for otherwise) she wants warm not kinky, fleece it is. Then I find this little gem that just seals the deal. Drop Seat Footed Pyjamas. Frankly, these things are awesome. I should have bought two. The only shame is there is no way in this life or the next, that the girlfriend would model in her pyjamas for the internetz. So instead, here's a picture of her asleep on the couch while I was up working. I call this picture "Although I'm soon to be single, this was totally worth it, 6:30am glory"