The fate of the warm-blooded in summer
Friday, July 21, 2006
The temperature has finally dropped and sleep is possible once more. In the UK we seem unprepared for weather of any sort that can be remarked upon. For a nation so obsessed with discussing the weather in all its various guises, we are alarmingly hopeless at coping with anything other than 'normal' levels of heat, cold, rainfall, or drought.
Houses and cars are unbearable when temperatures soar because air-con is rare. The travel network grinds to a halt with ice or leaves or water on rails and tarmac melts on the road. Perhaps the British talk about the weather so much as an avoidance technique. Discuss it and we don't actually have to fix things so they'll work in different conditions.
For the last week or so I've been sitting at my desk in a torpid state, with sweat trickling down my forearms and sticking to whichever papers lie beside my laptop. Nice.
Today, I feel I recovered some energy at last.
Houses and cars are unbearable when temperatures soar because air-con is rare. The travel network grinds to a halt with ice or leaves or water on rails and tarmac melts on the road. Perhaps the British talk about the weather so much as an avoidance technique. Discuss it and we don't actually have to fix things so they'll work in different conditions.
For the last week or so I've been sitting at my desk in a torpid state, with sweat trickling down my forearms and sticking to whichever papers lie beside my laptop. Nice.
Today, I feel I recovered some energy at last.
