The great british weather

I'm an Englishman - born and bred - and one thing I've always noticed is the ability for English people to get the weather into every conversation. One of the top news stories at the moment is that is 20 years since the 'Great storm' of 1987 and it seems that we English just love to harp on about it.

This was brought home to me when I was having my haircut a few weeks ago. I go to this quality barbers in Fratton called 'Latif' who is from Uzbekistan but does a superb haircut. So as I was in the chair admiring his work a chap comes to the door, who must be a regular and greets Latif with a hearty British hello. Now Latif speaks good English, but he definitely prefers to get on with the job rather than make small talk. So after a quick hello with the man at the door silence falls on the barber shop. It was quiet for a good minute or two, so much so I thought the chap had gone until, low and behold, he launched into his 'catch all' conversation starter: "So how about this weather we are having at the moment eh?" Latif was fairly unimpressed and the chap then moved on, probably not quite understanding why the conversation didn't bloom into life at his mention of a few spots of rain.

The funny thing is, I do that too - especially with people who are not from this country - and I have no idea why. It seems to be built into my very core. 'If conversation dries up, talk about the weather' - what makes us like that?

Life is more than the weather people, it's about time we thought of something else to natter about :)