Cool it

It's turned cold. Really cold. I've been working from home today, and though I haven't needed to put the heating on (thanks to the sun streaming through the windows), I know I will later on.

I've been out a couple of times and felt that wonderful sensation of the chill eating through your skin and into your bones. There's something almost purging about being out in cold weather; it's like your insides are being excavated and cleansed of all remaining detritus still loitering there from the ordeal of summer.

I noticed another thing when I was out, and that was how the drop in temperature had brought a similar drop in noise. Indeed, the streets have been blissfully quiet all day, as if a thermostat has turned down both the heat and noise levels simultaneously.

Now it's just gone 5pm and already it's pitch black. The sun sets earlier in London than it did in Liverpool, an unexpected treat and one that helps becalm the city at its most frantic and frenetic period. I'm looking forward to seeing my first frost of the season, and feeling something - no matter how small - of those blistering icy days of long ago.