Winter blues, walking slow, walking fast, the been-to way

It is freezing again today and there is a thick dense fog clothing everything and you can hardly see beyond your nose. Yesterday, I had to turn on the heating in my flat, another winter chore that I loathe. Each winter I have to work out the settings for the various heaters and then turn them on, all the while trying to strike the right balance between waking up virtually steamed alive and waking up frozen, while at the same time trying not to run up a fortune in electricity bills......On the streets, everyone is bustling wherever they are going and no one is stopping to dawdle....Which brings to my mind the question of walking paces.....

When I first arrived in the UK, English friends would always complain about how slowly I walked. I on the other hand would marvel at the brisk pace they would lollop off on when we were supposed to be having a leisurely walk....I soon became used to their complaints and didn't think much of it until once in conversation with another friend, he pointed out that if we walked at that brisk pace in Nigerian heat, you would probably collapse in a couple of minutes.....and vice versa. In other words, the famed brisk, business-like steps of the been-to (Sixties Nigerian slang for one who has "been to England") immortalized in Chinua Achebe's description of Clara in No Longer at Ease were not the result of any great zeal or efficiency, but actually an attempt to stave off freezing in winter...........Perhaps the great English tea drinking tradition springs from the same roots.......Even I, usually no great tea drinker am beginning to have the odd cup or two in the office to clear the head and bring some warmth back into chilled bones....