Fiona Duff: Ice cream and sun cream on hold

Yesterday I was lying in bed listening to the radio before going off for my weekly Inverleith Park dog walk with a couple of friends.

The weather, a voice told me, was going to be glorious and a real factor 30 all round kind of day.

So I heaved my carcass from the mattress, put on a T-shirt and headed to the kitchen for a cup of tea before hitting the park.

However, when I looked out of the window there was no bright yellow circle in the sky, which was basically grey. So instead of slapping on the sun cream I had to put on a jacket before heading outside. “It’s the haar” said one friend when we met up, “it’ll burn off soon.” I can’t count the number of times I have heard that said to me. The rest of Scotland basks in heat with people lazing about eating ice cream while us poor folk living in the Capital have a cloudy lid on our lives.

Of course, sometimes the sun does manage to break through, although as I write it hasn’t managed that feat, so I am now wearing a very thick cardigan over the aforementioned T-shirt.

The Ambre Solaire still lies untouched and I can’t imagine that there is a queue outside the Affogato ice cream shop round the corner on Queensferry Street.

On the bright side, Him Outdoors won’t be planning on producing some burnt offering from a barbeque for supper this evening.

You see that is my new attitude to life – whatever seems to be a bit of a downer has to have an upside.

If I haven’t been invited to a party it means I don’t have to fret about what I should wear; if the sink is full of unwashed pots, then it gives the kids something to do and if I can’t think of what to cook we can just go out for a pizza.

I’m not sure if it’s a great philosophy for life, but it sure makes up for having a bathroom full of unused sun cream.