We're currently in the Far South West on holiday. The sea mist has been down for most of the day and it's been breezy, so I was shocked to find it was 22C, and it feels like my face has caught the sun.
On the other side of the Bristol Channel it was grey till lunchtime, now brighter and - lile you - warmer than it seems. Quite breezy but humid. IT HASN'T RAINED!
Just got back from my second visit this week to open evening at a sixth form college, having had a row with said potential student just before leaving. Big glass of wine is now poured.
Summer here seems to have temporarily Gone Away. It's been dull and intermittently wet today, and covered-over shoes may be necessary. It's also considerably cooler than it was (17° as against 26° yesterday). Not really complaining though - 26° plus humidity is Too Hot.
I've spent the afternoon working on my friend's thesis - it's really just tweaking the formatting, but taking longer than I'd have liked because Microsoft Word is rubbish (see TICTH).
Now heading out to a farewell party for a couple in the Cathedral who are moving back to Newfoundland to take holy orders and run a group of parishes on the west coast.
Over 29°C in large parts of the Wesleyan flat, despite fans on full blast and most shutters closed. Gah. I don't think it's been as bad as that before, not surprising what with the outside temperatures, which are 33°C just past midday, and rising. The laundry dries rather fast though, which pleases me...! In fact, I'd totally forgotten how frequently you need to change garments in these transpiration-inducing temperatures, and in order to forego greater challenges of the olfactory kind! Grateful for fully functioning washing machine! - Am wearing my lovely cooling vest (see previous posts) now inside the apartment, which greatly helps.
No need for greater worries, therefore - I could hop onto any of the air-conditioned buses or trains, or hang around in an air-conditioned supermarket or its cafe. So, I'll live. At least I don't have to w*rk today. Or I could go clothes-shopping in an air-conditioned department store? Some new pairs of shorts surely wouldn't go amiss.
LVER - I hope all goes well in sweltering big-city Paris! - In Wesleyan climes, the authorities have cancelled most of the end-of-school kiddy parades they have in some places at this time of year, as it would simply be too unbearably hot for the wee bairns.
So we drink (refreshing, mineral salt-replenishing) coolish drinks, take it a easy-ish and do what we can. Let's keep cool and carry on.
Dry and sunny here, albeit noisy as various people take advantage of the first dry weather for days to mow lawns.
I need to finish clearing the bin store to make it into a bike shed, now it's dried out a bit from yesterday, when I moved out the ivy, holly and brambles with the help of the gardeners. Still to go is the leaf mould from a decade, now burying the paving stones
Marry, summer hath not gone away in France. 35° again today.
I think when I got the bus home last night, it must have been about 45° in there. And it’s still preferable to taking the metro.
Anyone who things the London Underground is hot and sticky hasn't experienced Le Metro. Not only is it hot as Hell, but I'm sure all the soap dodgers use it.
The worst on the London Underground (which I remember from my younger days - I'm not near there any more) is when the train is crammed full of people all standing like sardines and with arms raised to hold onto the rail or whatever there is to hold onto, and wherever you try to squeeze in, you end up with your face in someone's soggy stinky armpit. I have been on Le Metro years ago, when I was on holiday in Paris, but fortunately not during rush hour - I would hate to think of an equivalent situation in even hotter weather. These days I take the bus, and I could make a bingo card for the possible smells a person sitting next to me might have - urine, stale cigarette smoke, strong perfume, alcohol, mould, as well as BO.
The worst on the London Underground (which I remember from my younger days - I'm not near there any more) is when the train is crammed full of people all standing like sardines and with arms raised to hold onto the rail or whatever there is to hold onto, and wherever you try to squeeze in, you end up with your face in someone's soggy stinky armpit.
The Jubilee line wasn't too bad this morning. Crammed? Yes. But not unbreathable.
What I find quite awkward is, being a person of limited stature, it's easier to hold onto the vertical bars rather than reach up the railings just below ceiling height. It has then been known for a crush to come on and, with my fingers wrapped around the pole, to find someone else's soft body parts squishing against my fingers, but I am unable to move. Certainly daren't try to wiggle my fingers free as that could be construed as assault.
I found that the difficulties of hot Parisian commutes could be mostly avoided by being 1.90 m tall. The biometrics of the Parisian population may have changed in the last nearly 20 years (gasp!) but I was inexpressably grateful for them at the time.
Can't say I enjoyed offering my armpit as accommodation for someone else's head/nose, but needs must when an old RER train jerks into life....
@la vie en rouge, I can top that. The part of France I’m visiting is reaching a sizzling 39C! I’m sprawled on a sofa here at the hotel, trying to summon up the energy to exchange my sweaty, stinky clothes for a swimsuit. But even the prospect of dragging myself a few steps across the road to the pool seems too...much...effort.
Here they are - Tatze, Olga and Spencer - in that order. We couldn’t tell Spencer and Olga apart unless we looked at their undercarriages! They knew each other immediately - they both went berserk!
Spencer came in, straight to his bed, and has been flat out ever since.
Being so dark-coloured, do the dogs find hot weather more bothersome than light-coloured dogs might do?
Re the Underground in hot weather - some of you might recall the days when SMOKING was still permitted (in just one carriage per train IIRC)! Now, that was a fug...
The Great Grey Gloom continueth here, but stay! Ye Weather Prophets foretell Great Heat for the end of ye week, after ye ceasing of ye easterly Farts of Satan.
Re the Underground in hot weather - some of you might recall the days when SMOKING was still permitted (in just one carriage per train IIRC)! Now, that was a fug...
When I was a child, only 2 carriages out of 7 were non-smoking ... and my mother smoked. I didn't like it!
Re the Underground in hot weather - some of you might recall the days when SMOKING was still permitted (in just one carriage per train IIRC)! Now, that was a fug...
When I was a child, only 2 carriages out of 7 were non-smoking ... and my mother smoked. I didn't like it!
I think it must have been shortly before the total ban on smoking that we Puffers and Gaspers (yes! I was one of them!) were confined to just the one carriage...
@Heavenlyannie ...local psychiatric hospital museum (home of Crichton-Browne and cradle of neuropsychology ) that might have been of some interest.
Just looked him up and he is certainly of interest to me, as are asylums as my preferred history focus is lay perspectives on health care provision (my modern day teaching in health and social care is specialised in disability, inequality and service user voice and I am about to start some research with students who have mental health challenges). Which reminds me, I have an old book about our local asylum which is begging to be read.
Thank you for introducing a new historical character.
Your welcome The Elmet family have many members who worked in psychiatric health. My Mum used to work on Crichton-Browne ward. I'd link to the Mental Health Museum which is on the site, but they seem to have had their funding cut and there's not much up to date info. That's worth a visit though, if you're ever near the Rhubarb Triangle.
The lecture we had from the former curator used interviews from both service users, former staff and 100 year-old log books, and was fascinating.
I don't know whether it's the weather but my internet (already a poor signal) keeps cutting out, hence the delayed reply. V frustrating.
I wish I’d heard about the museum before, my husband’s grandmother lived in Ossett (she died last year) and we would have visited it. Maybe one day passing through.
It's dull, misty and not too hot (16°) here today - the excessive heat and humidity seems to have been postponed until tomorrow - just our luck to be invited to a barbecue tomorrow evening!
The thesis is done, though I'm not quite as happy with it as I'd like - Word formatting is such a pain.
Now for a busy few days, as we're having a party on Sunday at the château to say farewell to a girl who sang with the choir for a few months, but is moving back to Ontario to take up a new job. It's the first real party we've had here - it's not a big house, but the way the kitchen and sitting room run into each other should make it not too bad. Prayers that the weather allows us to spill out on to the deck would be appreciated!
There's going to be some high-octane housework going on in the next few days ...
It'll be a finger-food pot-luck, so I'm not expected to provide all the food*, although I'm planning to put out a few bits and pieces - pâté, cheese, bread-sticks and that sort of thing.
* or the wine - one of the nice things about throwing a party is that you sometimes end up with more wine than you started with. 🍷
43 degrees in Clermont ferrand today...no air conditioning in our office/ language school, so it was very hot and sticky. My elderly student was really struggling with the heat. We also had to pack and move boxes of books, as the building is being renovated. It's not much cooler now!!
One of our cats enjoys visiting us in the night and licking the salty sweat from our heads/arms/whichever bit of skin she can find. I have to hide my head under the covers. Hot!
It was sufficiently hot in the Far South West (henceforth FSW) that I wilted and had to buy a sun hat - we had left mine at home - but the wind was impressive, 50mph gusts were mentioned on the weather forecasts. One of the NT properties that we wanted to visit is very close to the top of a cliff, and was closed for safety reasons.
@Dormouse Your work situation sounded dreadful enough, (moving books in that heat?) but then having to sleep under your bedclothes in order to avoid a skin slurping cat! To have survived the trails of the day (& night) you must be Wonder Woman - the ultimate unconquerable warrior....
A friend who lives in France has just posted on FB that it hit 45.9° in the Département du Gard. Now that's seriously hot!
It's 25° but feeling like 30 here, but I'm enjoying the cooling air-con. The barbecue was postponed, partly because of thunderstorms in the forecast (which haven't materialised yet, although we had a few flashes and rumbles last night) and partly because one of the other guests is ill.
We had a v. good lunch after the Cathedral concert at a new Egyptian restaurant called the Sphinx. They haven't officially opened yet, but they're doing a sort of test run, offering their menu at 25% off, and adding in extra freebies in return for our opinions.
We ordered main courses - both delicious variations on the kebab theme, with rice, yoghurt, hummus, salad and (in D's case) chips - but before they arrived we were given bowls of the nicest lentil soup either of us has ever tasted, accompanied by fried pita chips. Then as we were part-way through the main course, they came with samosas (also v. good), and then a pudding that looked like a sort of browned tapioca, made with strands of something that may have been very fine noodles, topped with pistachios.
The whole thing was most excellent, and so abundant we had to ask for doggy-bags. With soft drinks and the discount, the bill came to under $40, and although we won't expect all the extras once they're up and running, we'll certainly be back.
Now I must take advantage of the free evening to go and make pâté and red-pepper jelly. After all, I don't want to be out in the heat ...
A friend who lives in France has just posted on FB that it hit 45.9° in the Département du Gard. Now that's seriously hot!
It's 25° but feeling like 30 here, but I'm enjoying the cooling air-con. The barbecue was postponed, partly because of thunderstorms in the forecast (which haven't materialised yet, although we had a few flashes and rumbles last night) and partly because one of the other guests is ill.
We had a v. good lunch after the Cathedral concert at a new Egyptian restaurant called the Sphinx. They haven't officially opened yet, but they're doing a sort of test run, offering their menu at 25% off, and adding in extra freebies in return for our opinions.
We ordered main courses - both delicious variations on the kebab theme, with rice, yoghurt, hummus, salad and (in D's case) chips - but before they arrived we were given bowls of the nicest lentil soup either of us has ever tasted, accompanied by fried pita chips. Then as we were part-way through the main course, they came with samosas (also v. good), and then a pudding that looked like a sort of browned tapioca, made with strands of something that may have been very fine noodles, topped with pistachios.
The whole thing was most excellent, and so abundant we had to ask for doggy-bags. With soft drinks and the discount, the bill came to under $40, and although we won't expect all the extras once they're up and running, we'll certainly be back.
Now I must take advantage of the free evening to go and make pâté and red-pepper jelly. After all, I don't want to be out in the heat ...
Sounds seriously sophisticated and global (and rather inexpensive!). Good find!
South-East Ukland may get up to 32C this afternoon, as the easterly Fart of Satan eases (at last, TBTG!), and is replaced by a southerly zephyr which will bring the warmer air over from the Con Tin Ent.
<votive> for all those for whom 40+C (or even 30+C) is really rather too much...
As long as it doesn't smell, that easterly devilish broken wind!
Fanks for your comiserations! They are coldly appreciated.
Speaking of which: after sensationally high temperatures on Thursday, which broke many a record in Europe - e.g. hottest since the mid-1800s, hottest June day ever, hottest anything since the beginning of taking the temperature! - Friday was a wee bit lower, thankfully.
Sensational lows, on the other hand, were experienced in this part of Continental WesShire on Friday night, Saturday early hours, when a wonderfully refreshing 12 to 14°C (!) were reached , which made the Wesleyan flat cool down to in parts a mere 24C - FABULOUS!
Daytime again now, and upon us are another over the 30s, but with cooler nights, hey, so we're made to live yet another day. Or something. <sparse applause from the few in the audience>
Again, thank you all for your concern. It makes a beneficial chill run down the spine.
Yes, it's still quite chilly here in Ukland - only 27C, according to my Car.
The Fart of Satan wasn't so much smelly as ear-tightening, IYSWIM. I felt that the Episcopal Ears needed loosening by a quarter of a turn, but, of course, this was not possible.
Seukland is forecast to get to 33C only at tea-time (5 o'clock), so Swukland is clearly more favoured.
I think.
Not so hot tomorrow, we are promised, so hopefully peeps will not be prevented from attending Church (they will grasp at any straw of an excuse sometimes, ISTM!), which is, in fact, nicely full of coolth at the moment.
Whoops, that straw was grasped at here this morning. I walked to church and then walked right on by. The beeb said it was going to be 23c here, but my Age Concern postcard had lit up on max (= at least 27C), with the warning "too hot". Pant, pant, pant....
(Okay, I know I'm a complaining wimp compared to what people are putting up with abroad....but this is my body and I'm baking.)
That Egyptian food sounds wonderful, piglet.
I spent the day manning a stall at a village craft fare (I make fused glass) and it was quieter than usual. So I sat and did some reading.
I quite fancy an ale. Or I might persuade the rest of the family to eat out this evening.
That Egyptian food does sound worth going back for more of, Piglet.
It's been very hot (our thermometer had it at nearly 35 degrees in the shade at one point) so what did we do but go for the next walk in the Capital Ring round London that we've been doing on and off for the last year. It was lovely, and fortunately there was quite a lot of shade, but I came back and dozed on the bed for a while or two.
Comments
Latin? English would suffice. Prithee nuncle (just to keep the Tudor vibe going).
But woe, woe, and thrice woe! In this fair corner of Our Ladye's Dowry, 'tis also grey and gloomy, with ye fierce Easterly wind of Satan...
I've spent the afternoon working on my friend's thesis - it's really just tweaking the formatting, but taking longer than I'd have liked because Microsoft Word is rubbish (see TICTH).
Now heading out to a farewell party for a couple in the Cathedral who are moving back to Newfoundland to take holy orders and run a group of parishes on the west coast.
I think when I got the bus home last night, it must have been about 45° in there. And it’s still preferable to taking the metro.
No need for greater worries, therefore - I could hop onto any of the air-conditioned buses or trains, or hang around in an air-conditioned supermarket or its cafe. So, I'll live. At least I don't have to w*rk today. Or I could go clothes-shopping in an air-conditioned department store? Some new pairs of shorts surely wouldn't go amiss.
LVER - I hope all goes well in sweltering big-city Paris! - In Wesleyan climes, the authorities have cancelled most of the end-of-school kiddy parades they have in some places at this time of year, as it would simply be too unbearably hot for the wee bairns.
So we drink (refreshing, mineral salt-replenishing) coolish drinks, take it a easy-ish and do what we can. Let's keep cool and carry on.
I need to finish clearing the bin store to make it into a bike shed, now it's dried out a bit from yesterday, when I moved out the ivy, holly and brambles with the help of the gardeners. Still to go is the leaf mould from a decade, now burying the paving stones
Anyone who things the London Underground is hot and sticky hasn't experienced Le Metro. Not only is it hot as Hell, but I'm sure all the soap dodgers use it.
It also depends which section of the Underground. The Central line is the hottest, along with the Northern line.
What I find quite awkward is, being a person of limited stature, it's easier to hold onto the vertical bars rather than reach up the railings just below ceiling height. It has then been known for a crush to come on and, with my fingers wrapped around the pole, to find someone else's soft body parts squishing against my fingers, but I am unable to move. Certainly daren't try to wiggle my fingers free as that could be construed as assault.
Can't say I enjoyed offering my armpit as accommodation for someone else's head/nose, but needs must when an old RER train jerks into life....
Spencer came in, straight to his bed, and has been flat out ever since.
Re the Underground in hot weather - some of you might recall the days when SMOKING was still permitted (in just one carriage per train IIRC)! Now, that was a fug...
The Great Grey Gloom continueth here, but stay! Ye Weather Prophets foretell Great Heat for the end of ye week, after ye ceasing of ye easterly Farts of Satan.
I think it must have been shortly before the total ban on smoking that we Puffers and Gaspers (yes! I was one of them!) were confined to just the one carriage...
The lecture we had from the former curator used interviews from both service users, former staff and 100 year-old log books, and was fascinating.
I don't know whether it's the weather but my internet (already a poor signal) keeps cutting out, hence the delayed reply. V frustrating.
The thesis is done, though I'm not quite as happy with it as I'd like - Word formatting is such a pain.
Now for a busy few days, as we're having a party on Sunday at the château to say farewell to a girl who sang with the choir for a few months, but is moving back to Ontario to take up a new job. It's the first real party we've had here - it's not a big house, but the way the kitchen and sitting room run into each other should make it not too bad. Prayers that the weather allows us to spill out on to the deck would be appreciated!
There's going to be some high-octane housework going on in the next few days ...
It'll be a finger-food pot-luck, so I'm not expected to provide all the food*, although I'm planning to put out a few bits and pieces - pâté, cheese, bread-sticks and that sort of thing.
* or the wine - one of the nice things about throwing a party is that you sometimes end up with more wine than you started with. 🍷
One of our cats enjoys visiting us in the night and licking the salty sweat from our heads/arms/whichever bit of skin she can find. I have to hide my head under the covers. Hot!
I tell people that's why I have two parties a year. The wine multiplies sort of like the loaves and fishes and keeps me stocked until my next party!
Mozart has been muddled through once.
It's 25° but feeling like 30 here, but I'm enjoying the cooling air-con. The barbecue was postponed, partly because of thunderstorms in the forecast (which haven't materialised yet, although we had a few flashes and rumbles last night) and partly because one of the other guests is ill.
We had a v. good lunch after the Cathedral concert at a new Egyptian restaurant called the Sphinx. They haven't officially opened yet, but they're doing a sort of test run, offering their menu at 25% off, and adding in extra freebies in return for our opinions.
We ordered main courses - both delicious variations on the kebab theme, with rice, yoghurt, hummus, salad and (in D's case) chips - but before they arrived we were given bowls of the nicest lentil soup either of us has ever tasted, accompanied by fried pita chips. Then as we were part-way through the main course, they came with samosas (also v. good), and then a pudding that looked like a sort of browned tapioca, made with strands of something that may have been very fine noodles, topped with pistachios.
The whole thing was most excellent, and so abundant we had to ask for doggy-bags. With soft drinks and the discount, the bill came to under $40, and although we won't expect all the extras once they're up and running, we'll certainly be back.
Now I must take advantage of the free evening to go and make pâté and red-pepper jelly. After all, I don't want to be out in the heat ...
That's seriously hot even for Phoenix!
Sounds seriously sophisticated and global (and rather inexpensive!). Good find!
<votive> for all those for whom 40+C (or even 30+C) is really rather too much...
Fanks for your comiserations! They are coldly appreciated.
Speaking of which: after sensationally high temperatures on Thursday, which broke many a record in Europe - e.g. hottest since the mid-1800s, hottest June day ever, hottest anything since the beginning of taking the temperature! - Friday was a wee bit lower, thankfully.
Sensational lows, on the other hand, were experienced in this part of Continental WesShire on Friday night, Saturday early hours, when a wonderfully refreshing 12 to 14°C (!) were reached
Daytime again now, and upon us are another over the 30s, but with cooler nights, hey, so we're made to live yet another day. Or something. <sparse applause from the few in the audience>
Again, thank you all for your concern. It makes a beneficial chill run down the spine.
The Fart of Satan wasn't so much smelly as ear-tightening, IYSWIM. I felt that the Episcopal Ears needed loosening by a quarter of a turn, but, of course, this was not possible.
I think.
Not so hot tomorrow, we are promised, so hopefully peeps will not be prevented from attending Church (they will grasp at any straw of an excuse sometimes, ISTM!), which is, in fact, nicely full of coolth at the moment.
(Okay, I know I'm a complaining wimp compared to what people are putting up with abroad....but this is my body and I'm baking.)
IANAD, but I prescribe some nice, cold, ALE.
Meanwhile, a nice bottle of Czech lager is about to be taken from the Episcopal fridge...
I spent the day manning a stall at a village craft fare (I make fused glass) and it was quieter than usual. So I sat and did some reading.
I quite fancy an ale. Or I might persuade the rest of the family to eat out this evening.
It's been very hot (our thermometer had it at nearly 35 degrees in the shade at one point) so what did we do but go for the next walk in the Capital Ring round London that we've been doing on and off for the last year. It was lovely, and fortunately there was quite a lot of shade, but I came back and dozed on the bed for a while or two.