I wasn’t kidding when I predicted the library being like the Antarctic while the heating wasn’t functioning. We muddled through the first day dressed in our warmest clothes and apologising, repeatedly, to library users who expected the inside of the library to be at least marginally warmer than the street outside.

It didn’t help that we encountered a cold snap in the weather this week. Waking every morning to see frost on the cars in the street and on the houses across from my place didn’t make me want to saunter into work with a song in my heart, unless it was a sarcastic rendition of “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snooooow!” I couldn’t even cycle to work as the roads were too icy unless I wanted to skid under an oncoming car. I walked the first morning, b...

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