Flick! Winter

Just like that. Yesterday, I did some Christmas shopping with mom and dad, and on the way home, it was snowing quite heavily. It continued snowing until the early evening when the wind blew the clouds away.

I woke up this morning thinking it was a bit chilly in my place. It's an old building, badly insulated, so I wasn't entirely surprised, but I was starting to worry about my comfort when the weather eventually turns nasty and the temperature dips to -20 celsius. I packed my suitcase, called a cab, ran out to meet the car in front of the building. Sitting in the back, I'm quietly listening to the radio when I hear the weather report: it's -18 outside. Yikes! But good, this means that I will feel a bit chilly when it's really cold outside, but nothing a warm sweater and sox cannot fix.

My flight to Halifax was on a small Bombardier regional jet. Regional service at Air Canada (and/or Montreal airport) is the Lada of flight services: passengers wait in a terminal with no seats (or only enough seats for about one quarter of the passengers waiting in the area), with limited options for breakfast (I fortunately remembered to grab a coffee and pastry at Starbucks) and, even when it's brutally cold outside, wait in line outside to board the plane (I remember getting off on the tarmac in Mexico, but with the tropical weather, it was a lot more pleasant). At least the flight was on time (left/arrived within 30 minutes of schedule = on time in my books).

When I landed in Halifax, the scene was beautiful. The entire region had received several centimetres of snow. The Halifax airport is surrounded by trees and they were covered. The drive back from the airport to work was a bit stressful, with winds blowing the cars sideways and the roads not being cleared nicely.

Tonight, I can hear the wind howling outside, it's still cold (-10) and will remain for another day. Just like that, somebody turned on a switch and it's winter.

Too bad it's going to warm up and rain later during the week.