As October advances, a change sweeps across the morning streets of London. Look at what the capital's commuters are wearing this week. Gone are the bright colours of summer, and in their place are greys, blacks, browns, beiges and navy blues. A certain temperature threshold has been crossed, and suddenly everybody's wearing dull jackets and coats (or even, in particularly extreme cases, scarves).
All except one bloke who's still wandering the streets in purple, or blue, or pink, or green, or whatever shirt he pulled off the rail this morning. Which would be me. Because it's not cold yet, is it? Not in the slightest. I can't say I've noticed a nip in the air, not even at half past seven on my walk to the station. I'm perfectly comfortable in shirtsleeves, even when all around have started layering up. It's as if everybody except me has looked at the calendar rather than the weather forecast and thought "ooh... October... must wear jacket". Or am I the one behaving oddly?
I mean, I've not turned my central heating on yet either. More to the point, I've not even thought about turning my central heating on yet. Many of you will have tweaked your thermostats this week to take off the overnight chill, but I've not noticed any such drop in indoor temperature. It's still comfortably mild in my flat, with not the slightest hint of goosepimpling. I've not considered wearing a jumper, or doubling up the duvet, let alone whacking on any artificial heating, because I'm not cold. Maybe I'm fortunate that my walls are Victorian-thick, or maybe I have kind neighbours whose radiators are already running at full pelt. Or maybe the rest of you are all wimps.
So I just wanted to say (to Britons at least)... it's not cold yet, OK? Don't cave in and squander the world's energy resources by switching on your heating, not for a few more weeks at least. If you're feeling a bit shivery indoors then be brave and wear a fleece or a sweater, because it might help stave off global warming for, ooh, at least a few more minutes. And if you see me walking down the street this morning in my brightly-coloured single-layered workclothes, don't call me a nutter, call me resilient.
