It’s not that it’s cold in Dundee or most of the UK, with temperatures rarely dropping under 17 degrees during the day.
But you can’t tell if there will be rain, cloud or blazing sun from one moment to the next.
Never mind, those who’ve booked a trip tell themselves – we’ve got our week away to look forward to.
Except those who have ventured abroad dare not leave the sanctuary of their air conditioned hotel for fear of the inferno outside, as Europe records temperatures touching 40 degrees.
I asked a friend how she is getting on in Spain with her husband and two kids.
“By 10am it’s too hot for the kids outside – they wilt and moan and everyone falls out,” she said.
“So we stay in the arcade room with air con, computer games and one table tennis table. There’s a queue for everything because there are so many kids doing the same thing – and we’ve paid double for our holiday because schools are off.
“So… you know… it’s going great.”
Mind you, another pal in Greece with his family says temperatures are peaking at 30 degrees and their taxi driver said that, despite headlines, in their area there are less wild fires than other years.
For those with kids, a trip abroad – or staycation – usually only takes up a week or two of a long school holiday.
Wholesome day in Dundee was a rose-tinted dream
What to do in Dundee in the meantime? It’s all very well having a wholesome family plan of picnics in Camperdown and sandcastles along the Esplanade.
But the reality is far off that rose-tinted mark.
I give you our ‘day trip’ last week.
I felt bad (what is it with the mother’s guilt?) about having been away with work and sending them to sports camps (even though they loved it) and so I saw the sun blazing in the sky and set off, in shorts and t-shirts, ready for fun.
First stop, a Mr Whippy at Davies ice cream parlour in Lochee. Old school, I told the boys, as I regaled them with memories of being dared by the waitress to touch the bottom of my sundae with my tongue when I was a kid.
Next, Castle Green in the Ferry. Except by now the clouds had gathered.
Then a downpour came and their thin summer jumpers didn’t cut it.
“Did you not pack rain coats again?” said Chester.
It was Benidorm in July when we left house. Except it wasn’t really – it was Dundee in summer and everything from galoshes to goggles should be in the boot of your car at all times. And yet, I never learn.
“I’m soaked through,” said the youngest.
“I can’t feel my toes. Can we go home?”
There was a pause. I sensed diplomacy from the eldest was about to be deployed.
“We love spending time with you mum,” he said. I sensed a ‘but’…
“But at Mayfield (the sports camp they’d been at the week before) when it rains we go inside and play football or dodgeball or badminton.
“It’s so much fun.”
He saw I looked crestfallen.
“And we just love your packed lunches. The Peperami and everything. You make them really well.”
