Tales of Freezing Nights 1: The trip back from Cirque Du Soleil
It was around 12:30am by the time we set off from Brisbane to head home (about an hour and a half drive till I could bundle up in bed) with Christian driving, Nic in the front and me in the back seat. We all know the progression of the uncomfortable "I'm cold" sensation which is somehow magnified a bazillion times at night when all you want to do is go to bed. The feeling starts off small. A tingling on the ends of your toes as they start feeling a little uncomfortably numb, your nose feeling cold and slightly wet, your throat feeling a little dry from the air conditioning. You try to reposition yourself only to find you loose the trapped body heat you had tucked away in that position. You curse the sleeveless dress you chose to wear which, despite your most valiant and creative efforts, simply cannot be arranged in a way as to cover more surface area and provide a threadbare source of warmth. You attempt to huddle and pull your legs up onto the seat with you and fold your arms up against your chest, a position you are now stuck in because although you feel as though it is doing nothing to provide more heat, any movement seems to invite rushes of cold air to invade your precious cocoon of warmth. You may be wondering why I didn't simply turn the heater on. Ha, as though I had not thought of this already. I asked that very early on in the car trip for the heater to be turned on, only to be told it was broken. I later found out Christian had completely lied about this because he "liked it when the car was nice and cold." WHAT? SERIOUSLY!?!? (You cannot imagine my incredulous face right now as I recall the torment of this night and knowing he could have saved me all my suffering).
It was after about an hour I had hit the point of so uncomfortably cold that I could think of little else but visions of my bed, warm pyjamas, a heater and blankets. I was now curled up as tight as I could curl, wondering what I could use to cover myself up for some warmth. Now and again I'd drift a little and hit the FREEZING window and get jolted awake again. My only comfort was that at least poor Nic in the front seat must surely also be freezing and by sharing this frozen hell together I at least had a comrade who was in this battle with me. I actually felt really sorry for Nic because the front seat had the entire windscreen which seemed to radiate far more cold since Christian would periodically blast it with the aircon to keep it from fogging up. Yes, poor Nic, I consoled myself, at least we're in this together. But seriously where was the blanket that was usually ALWAYS in the back seat!??! This must have been the only time someone had removed it! I was actually starting to look at the seat cushioning and think how nice and warm I'd be if I ripped it from the seat and made myself a giant car-interior suit. I even made one huge move to check the boot through the back seat panel to see if maybe the blanket had been put in there or if there was ANYTHING I could use to provide some warmth. Result= empty mocking boot + ALL conserved body heat lost. The only thing that I had at my disposal was the reflector panel. You know those accordion looking things you put in the front window to keep the car cool? The end image was pretty depressing of me freezing, huddled in the corner wrapped in a car reflector mumbling to myself that we were nearly home and that at least Nic was going through this with me. Don't worry guys, I survived the night, the happy ending is me shakily making my way off to bed when we finally got home, cursing the winter gods and my dress and anything I could think of that had contributed to the entire freezing experience.
Oh and remember my one solace? "At least Nic's cold too". Well guess where the blanket was. Yeah. Nic wasn't cold at all. He had excess blanket wrapped around him, was warm and toasty and slept the entire way home.
Winter Gods: 1 Lisa: 0
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