Pansies

A pansy is sook. A whiner. A whimp. Someone who complains about the cold. Unfortunately, this has been me all week. I haven’t received very much sympathy.

My Norwegian flatmate gives me that look of utter disbelief before scoffing at me.

My Canadian friends just seem amused before enlightening me to the fact that back in Canada it is – 40 ˚C. There’s a reason I didn’t go there…

At least I provide them with some entertainment.

Entertainment.

Maybe for some people, Iceland isn’t cold. But for a pansy like me, it’s freezing. And, if you’re in doubt, I have developed 3 SureFire ways of determining with confidence if it is cold enough to complain about or not.

It's not really a desert here...

SureFire Way #1

I share a talent (of sorts) with Karen, from Mean Girls. Her amazing talent is that:

“My breasts can always tell when it is going to rain.”

Granted, mine talent is slightly less developed (and less impressive) than hers. My hands have the ability of telling me where on the cold scale (mild - moderately cold - cold - freezing cold - dysfunctional cold) the current temperature is.

Photos don't do temperature.

It’s very scientific. Dysfunctional cold happens when my little finger gets stuck out at a 45 ˚ angle and I literally don’t have the ability to pull it back to 90 ˚.  Having only happened once before in my living memory, it happened here again in Iceland. I was not impressed. And it was definitely cold.

Looks can be deceiving.

SureFire Way #2

A friend who doesn’t have my talent. It’s unfortunate, although amusing. In order for him to decipher just how cold it was, he thought it necessary to go for a quick dip through the ice (not on purpose). If your pants freeze after this, I would say that it is legitimate to complain about the cold. His pants did freeze by the way. 

Swimming sounds appealing...

Just to clarify, that is completely frozen.

SureFire Way #3

You know it’s cold enough to complain about when the highest waterfall in Iceland is 90% frozen and is nothing more than a trickle cascading down the 156m face. But it was cool… (pun intended).

The fjiord (fiord). 

Where there should have been a waterfall.