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Start the Summer … 姍姍來遲的春天,和未有影蹤的夏天

A carry bag from a fashion chain store caught my eye on the underground train last Saturday. The big words on the bag said, ‘Start the Summer!’

Of course the store wants to promote its latest line of summer products. Maybe the locals think that summer isn’t that far away. But to me, summer is still a distant future away and spring has barely started.

Proper spring, I mean – or the kind of spring I am more used to …

Yes, the weather has generally stopped being uncomfortably cold since the start of April, but winter appeared to be lingering until maybe a week or so ago and was constantly contriving a come-back. Even now, the mornings are still a little chilly and wasn’t too unlike the sunny winter days of Melbourne. But on Saturday I’ve reassured myself finally that winter weather is well and truly gone, and I could safely put away my clothes for the coldest of the days. On the same day, quite a few locals were already donning T-shirts and shorts in the streets. Makes me jealous …

Up to last week, there were still quite a number of trees which were still bare in their branches. I really thought how out of place such scenery is with the weather, but I shouldn’t be so surprised as to why the trees seem to be reluctant to grow new leaves – when I remember that the trees were shedding leaves already in September last autumn. Why bother for the 5 short months? Even the trees know that winter is never too far away, but for now they’ve decided to put on a good show for the warmer times.

It’s not just the trees that are thinking about the winter already. One of the local Hong Konger friend leased a car in March and managed to get by without fitting the proper winter tyres. Of course there were only a few days in March when the weather or road conditions became too tricky for normal tyres, but there’ll be a lot more those days to come next winter. Who can blame him if he’s started to look for winter tyres. A few of us told him not to worry so much for now since it’s spring time, but the threat of winter seems to have started preoccupying his mind (and some of ours too).

So when can people like me stop thinking and talking about winter, you may well ask? The answer is simple: bring in some proper warm weather! The spring two years ago felt even worse, but the weather magically warmed up a couple of days before football World Cup kicked off. I suspect we need the Euro 2008 football championship this June to repeat the trick.


星期六乘地鐵時,看到一家時裝連鎖店的購物袋上寫着:「啟動夏天!」

好一個有夏日色彩的口號,相信不少德國人都會覺得夏天應為時不遠,但對我來說,夏天暫且不提也罷,春天也是剛剛才站得住腳呢。

當然我對春天的「要求」,跟德國人肯定有點出入……

其實天氣上個月早已是暖和一點了,但冬天終不願意瀟灑地走,老是想辦法從春天手中搶回其皇位,動不動便放一放回馬箭,就算到最近,早上的空氣仍帶點寒,感覺實在跟澳洲墨爾本冬天晴朗的日子相差不遠。不過我也感覺到,冬天的天氣也是時候離開我們了,上星期六我也終於放心把冬天最能禦寒的衣物收起來,而那天已有德國人穿短袖衣、短褲在街上跑了,真佩服又羨慕。

上星期仍看到不少光禿禿的樹,看起來跟春天的天氣有些格格不入,但深想一層,樹木不想長葉也不足為奇,好像上個秋天,一踏入九月便落葉,樹葉祇長五個月又有甚麼意思?不過為了應節,樹木也暫時換上新裝搞搞氣氛,總不能一年到晚都像冬天那樣暮氣沈沈吧。

樹木都暫時不想冬天,人就不然了,我其中有個香港朋友,三月租車時發現他的車原來沒安裝冬季輪胎,幸好那時祇有三數天的天氣和道路情況實在不宜用普通(夏季用)輪胎,但這些日子,下個冬季可能每天都是,所以他已開始着手找冬季輪胎了,我們都說,現在才是春天,不用這麼早便想這個問題吧,不過大家都心知,冬天其實離現在也不是太遠了。

究竟有甚麼法寶可以令像我之類的人不再想冬天呢?其實答案很簡單:就是有真真正正溫暖的日了就夠了,但要怎樣把這些日子迎來?對了,兩年前也是全靠世界盃足球賽,才能把那個不暖的春天一腳踢走,看來今年要靠六月舉行的歐洲國家盃了!

Comments

Unknown said…
呵!原來冬天夏天車輪也要換裝
你不說我倒沒想起有這個問題
GK said…
冬天車胎是用於冰雪地上行駛,在歐、美、加冬天多雪的地方才要隨季節更換,所以你不用擔心這個問題!

另後記:我寫這篇blog後天氣迅速暖起來,看來寫網誌的確有效用!

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