Sometimes even foreseen, visible weather conditions are discounted when one has just arrived in a new city, as I found to my chagrin during a visit to Seoul. It was the height of winter, at -17° C, but I had disembarked from a comfortable flight into a well-heated airport, transferred to an equally well-heated car, and finally arrived at a hotel that matched up in terms of temperature and comfort.

After reconfirming an appointment on the telephone, I asked for directions to my destination and was told it was "the very tall building you can see from your hotel". I decided that I could walk there as it was just around the corner. It was amazing how far around the corner the building turned out to be, and what seemed to be walking distance from the hotel window turned out to be quite a hike. I was totally chilled. When I set out, I was still feeling rather cosy from all the indoor heating and dis not think it necessary to put on extra clothing. Soon, my face and hands were numb and I had to duck into a building very few yards to regain any semblance of warmth. There was no taxi in sight, so this process continued with my making repeated stops along the way. I finally got to my destination very cold, but very relieved. While there, I had to spend about seven minutes in the lobby, literally thawing out, before I could even venture to the elevators and on to my meeting.