last known position

The current icy cold where I live in London is making life tricky.

Tricky. But not impossible.

And amongst the spinning tyres and funny hats this afternoon at the school gates, I heard someone say: "I can't imagine it any colder... Can you?"

"No!" I replied. And then thought: of course I can. But right then, in the midst of it, I didn't. I just dealt with the cold I was in.

Perspective's a funny thing isn't it? An important thing. In many ways.

So - as a tribute to Mother Nature's icy grip and perspective, I thought I'd publish today a conversation with someone who knows about being in the cold.

So this is an edit (with music) of Ann Daniels, the polar explorer. It's called: last know position.

Ann's dead famous in the exploring world. And a brilliant woman. And very much alive.

And in our conversation she talks beautifully about beauty of nature, the agonising pain of freezing almost to death and (towards the end) she talks about how she was so cold that the only way to stay warm enough to stay alive... was to use her imagination.

Have a listen now if you like.

(Or download it. It might be really good on headphones on long, cold journeys to work.)

And stay warm while you're listening if you possibly can.

I wonder if you've been at The North Pole for 90 days non-stop like Ann Daniels was last year, if you can imagine it any colder.

So spare a thought for anyone who's very cold tonight and with nowhere warm to go.

And I'm going to turn my heating down by a degree or two and take a tip from Ann:

I'm going to use my imagination.