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I have a burning need to know stuff and I love asking awkward questions.

Monday, July 09, 2018


Two Things of Note

It’s almost 10pm as I write this and it’s still 23 degrees C out there. For the past three weeks now – and with at least another week to go – we’ve been regularly experiencing daytime temperatures hovering around 30 degrees. In most places this wouldn’t amount to much – but this is England! I’ve been trying to think of the last time we had weather this warm for this long and I can only think of 1976 which was a notable year in many ways. One of the major issues, of course, is that our buildings and transport infrastructure is designed to keep people warm rather than cool so air-conditioning is a rarity. Both of my local supermarkets have air-con so that’s ‘cool’ but my bus home – DEAR GOD that’s warm and sultry complete with tiny windows designed (naturally) to allow in a modicum of fresh air without losing precious heat!

As a Celt I am, as you can imagine, suffering quite a bit. Surprisingly I’m sleeping OK on top of the covers and I think that’s helping a lot. During the day though – that’s TOUGH. Luckily my office is nicely cool but anytime I have to go out for any length of time I come back exhausted and, often, feeling sick. That’s probably the humidity more than the actual heat but I’ve never done particularly well with heat, humidity or direct sunlight. If you want to see me collapse in just about every way possible sit me outside out of the shade on a hot day. It’s not nice, not at all, and that’s before I add in my hay fever! Thankfully with me its tree pollen which has dropped off considerably lately. Grass pollen doesn’t bother me much so my summer sneezing is pretty much done now till next year. Looking at the forecast the high temperatures ease off from Saturday and drop (at least for a while) to the much more comfortable low 20’s C. That I can cope with.

In other news it looks like the Tories are about to self-destruct over Brexit. David Davis (Brexit Secretary) resigned on Sunday and Boris Johnson (Foreign Secretary) resigned this afternoon. How that leaves Teresa May (Prime Minister) is anyone’s guess at this point. Both posts have been quickly filled but it must have done the PM some serious political damage. Plus the fact that both Davis and Boris can now freely snipe from the back benches and plot the PM’s downfall without getting into serious hot water. Of course the fact that we’re only EIGHT months away from the Brexit deadline makes everything particularly fractious. If there’s a leadership contest that could take three months. Is the EU going to continue negotiations with someone (probably) on borrowed time? Will Brexit be derailed? Postponed? Or will we, as I’ve been predicting all along crash out without any deal in place? Just when you thought that Brexit couldn’t fuck things up any further….. Interesting times, eh? But at least we have blue skies to wonder at and ice cream to look forward to…. 

5 comments:

Mudpuddle said...

it hasn't been above 70 here for quite a while but it's supposed to get up to 80 this week... it was 45 this morning (this is in nw oregon about 50 miles from Astoria)... i don't really understand the Brexit thing; but if it's anything like the US's problems, it's all the fault of the politicians and they're uncontrollable greed...

VV said...

You are exactly like me! I hiss at the sun, I wilt at the slightest increase in temperature, and I am so disagreeable when the humidity hits! I grew up in central New York around the Finger Lakes region. Summers were pleasantly warm during the day, and cool and moist in the evening. Nobody had air conditioners. Now I’m back near that area and it’s so hot, for too long, and we need to use A/C. We’ve truly screwed up our planet. 😔

CyberKitten said...

@ Mudpuddle: I don't think many people understand Brexit including those who are supposedly charged with making it happen. It's *so* going to be a HUGE Charlie Foxtrot!

@ V V: Shared Viking Heritage [lol]. I'm definitely spending more energy holding back my temper and am definitely more irritable. Luckily we don't get this sort of thing too often or for too long though, I guess with Global Warming, it'll be happening more often in the next 30 or so years I'll be around to suffer through it.

Stephen said...

Heh...if you ever decide to visit the US South, you may want to aim at...January and February. Otherwise it's very likely our temps are above 70F. Even if we have cold snaps and sleet in Dec or Mar, we could still have 80F degree weather later that month. We're so accustomed to hot weather that I was surprised to learn that in other areas AC is not the norm. I have friends in Oregon who have never bothered with it, and heat waves make them miserable.


At the moment my central AC is out and I'm making do with two window units and an industrial fan. My poor PC is a vampire, only allowed to power up at night. I do it for its own protection...

CyberKitten said...

I was in Portugal in May - some years ago - (in the mid-high 80's F) which was OK because it was so dry and even managed a few days in the Australian rain forest (high temps plus high humidity) without huge problems. I guess the problem is that during the normal work week I *have* to go out in it and.... do stuff. But it's eased off a bit so so that's cool(er).