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The very British tradition of talking about the weather at every opportunity doesn't stop when you leave the country, in fact it just amplifies the situation. In the UK we have very little weather to talk about really, unless you count the summer of 1976 when we had sun once, but the moment you move abroad you have a whole host of things to fill those awkward conversational voids.
I love to wax lyrical to my friends stuck back in old blighty about how we have four proper seasons and brag about our 70 degree temperature shift throughout the year, but in fact the weather here actually does dictate everything you do.
Even the festivals are governed by mother nature. Where else in the world do we substitute the commercially recognised Valentines Day with cutting back vines and trying out home-made plonk, or wear red and white bracelets until we see our first blossom or stork and I, for one, have not...