take me back to the summertime

Take me back to the sweet times, the hot nights...

Sing it sister (well technically, Thirsty Merc). Now, I don’t mean to complain (I can hear all that know me well chuckle right now because they know, I do like to get on my soapbox and tell it like it is) but it has been extremely cold in Melbourne. So cold in fact, I am actually dreaming of beautiful balmy weather. Again, very strange because I’m usually not a massive fan of summer. Ok, so there are some good things about summer:

1. I was born in Summer.
2. I love ice cream (actually anything cold and sweet) and it’s perfectly acceptable to eat loads of it in summer, for its cooling effects. 
3. The days are longer and the nights are shorter.
4. Going out is not so much a chore, and requires very little effort.

However, let’s look at the other side of the coin. I don’t enjoy summer because:

1. I sweat like a pig.
2. I don’t do summer clothing very well. Ironic right, given that I was born and raised in the Sunshine State? Sorry, I just do not rock the Billabong and thongs (flip flops) look.
3. I burn/tan really easily and it stays with me for ages. I know, why should I be complaining about this? I’ll tell you why. I don’t like to tan, brown is not beautiful from where I’m from (whacky Asians!) and I still have the horrible t-shirt tan line from last year’s Big Day Out – yes, about 15 months on!

To all my friends that love Summer, I don’t mean to be disrespectful. At times, I behave like I’m not a true Queenslander. I do apologise. I do still very much love pineapple though.

So, whilst having climatised to the much cooler weather in Melbourne, I found it odd that I was dreaming of Summer. I think because lately, not only has it been cold, it has also been wet. Cold + wet weather ≠ pleasant. It’s taken about 4 days for my washing to dry. 4 days! Good thing I have an extensive wardrobe (I knew all that clothes shopping would come in handy one day).

And so to this, I found myself looking through my photos from our South East Asia trip in October 2009. My family and I had an amazing time. We ate to our hearts’ content in Singapore and Malaysia (well, technically everywhere we went), we got up close and personal with elephants and tigers in Thailand and met up with family in Indonesia and Singapore. Oh and the weather. Lush, tropical weather....

Where it's totally acceptable to eat a mountain of shaved ice and syrup, at least once a day. You sweat it all off anyway.

Or get a massage from a baby elephant...

 Or touch some unsuspecting sleeping tigers...

Eat a feast of spicy food (again, you sweat it off)...

Where you feel like you’ve just had a shower, constantly. Where you don’t suffer from dry skin. Where you feel like you need to walk around in as little clothing as possible (I won't scare you all with a photo of that!). Well suffice to say, I quickly snapped out of my summer dream. Don’t get me wrong, a summer tropical holiday is nice, but key word in that sentence: holiday. Perhaps a trip up north during Winter will help me through the colder months...