I think Mother Nature is bipolar ...

I think Mother Nature is Bipolar – especially in Cape Town. For those of you who commute daily, whether it is from Blouberg or Durbanville to Town will know exactly what I mean. How many places do you know in the world where you can experience rain, sunshine, mist, wind, mild and harsh weather all in one city, all in one day? Not many I’m guessing.

So often it has happened that I wake up on a morning, take a peak outside my bedroom window to get an idea on the weather and it’s been cloudy with a wind whipping through the tree in my neighbour’s yard. So with that I dress like a snowman to keep the chill out. I’ll then go on my merry way to work and on route the weather starts changing. The wind miraculously calms down, I look at the sky and slowly but surely the clouds have retreated and the sky is an innocent, pretty blue. So by the time I arrive at work I look like the Eskimo that got lost and ended up on a tropical island! I then spend the day trying my damndest to keep cool, cursing our fickle friend Mother Nature.

Even though the dressing warm and ending up overheating seems to be the usual I’ve been caught out the other way often, especially recently. You see I thought I’d learnt, so I’d take a sneak peak out my window to get a read on the weather, and dress opposite to what I saw – it seemed to be the pattern after all – and then true to form I’d be dressed in a light skirt and top with nothing warmer than a thin cardy and a silk scarf shivering my butt off the rest of the day.

So I pretty much feel no matter how I dress Mother Nature will totally do the opposite, and short of taking a spare outfit to work what is a girl to do? If I start doing that my colleagues are going to think I’m wackier than I already am for dressing for “summer” in “winter” and for “winter” in “summer”! I guess I could check the weather forecast but I somehow doubt the weather man is having anymore luck than me!

I pointed this process of discovery out to a friend not so long ago and she offered a good piece of advice that left me feeling like the moron I’m starting to think I am at heart – layer you clothing and pack a jersey just in case; and she’s not even a native Capetonian like me, clearly I missed a few vital lessons! Oh the horror!