Could I endure a frigid Canberra winter? Not in my wildest, electric dreams

‘Everyone I met in Canberra had developed elaborate winter rituals that [involved] layering, thermal underwear, gloves, possum-fur socks and hats, specialty curtains that absorbed the cold and ducted heating,’ writes Brigid Delaney. Photograph: Volodymyr Melnyk/Alamy

One of my earliest memories as a child is my little hands plugging in the old electric blanket for my visiting grandmother and then being violently thrown across the room after it short-circuited.

Being electrocuted was a strange and horrible sensation. I don’t even remember crying out as a nasty current ran through my body like I was a human extension cord. I was literally shocked (just as the name of the affliction promised), bewildered that such a thing could happen, staring at the soot on my hands, then up at my ashen grandmother.