Tim Dowling: I've already used up all my optimism for the year. What now?

"I am sitting in my office shed, cut off from the house by a driving rain. The misery and boredom of the English winter is, I have to admit, beginning to get to me. I spent January talking about the days getting longer, and used up all my optimism. For the last 10 minutes I've been scrolling through the website of my American home town newspaper, which is full of pictures of the recent snowfall over a foot, with more predicted in the coming days. Extreme weather has a tendency to make me homesick I hate to miss a hurricane."

"Another local headline catches my eye, one I find difficult, at first glance, to believe. The town is about to get its first ever roundabout, I say to the oldest one the next morning. At the intersection of Wilson and Meadow Street. You told me this yesterday, he says. You came running in. My worlds are colliding, I say. I'm not sure I can handle it. The US, in the 30 years I've been away, has gone from being a country that knew nothing of roundabouts to one that cannot build them fast enough. In the paper, the town's director of transport was quoted as saying, I think it's going to look great, as if they were installing a new fountain."

I sit in an office shed, isolated by driving rain and weary of the English winter's misery and boredom. I spend January noting lengthening days and feel my optimism used up. For ten minutes I scroll my American hometown newspaper, seeing over-a-foot snowfall and forecasts for more. Extreme weather provokes homesickness; I hate to miss a hurricane. A local headline announces the town's first roundabout, astonishing me after three decades away. My wife suggests a new country park seven miles away. We drive there, find a lonely car park with three other cars, their occupants simply sitting.

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