Cold Mountain

It turns out that I'm not quite finished on the cold topic as I arrived into work and the air conditioning was on the "It's 1200 degrees outside- we should over compensate" setting even though it is actually about ten degrees outside. So it's cold at work too.

A few years ago I read an article in the paper that I often refer to when this type of weather gets discussed.

For those of you who are not kiwis- some background. Otago University is one of the biggest, oldest and most prestigious unis in NZ. It is situated in Dunedin. They say that when the Scots got to NZ they arrived in Auckland and said, "Oh no. This is far too nice and warm, this will never do." So the moved on to Wellington and said, "Well the wind would remove your eyelids and it's a bit colder, but no, we're not quite there yet." So they moved on to Dunedin and said, "Ah yes, this is just right. Somewhere we can be just as miserable." The end.

And yet they still refuse to have central heating.

A study showed that the temperature in the average student accomodation is two degrees colder than the temperature reccommended by the World Health Organisation as the minimum for healthy living. One student profiled was staying in a flat so badly insulated and draughty that on a standard winter's evening the scientists showed that she would have been warmer sleeping in her fridge than in her bedroom.

No central heating. None.