This is a childhood tongue-twister that was brought to mind recently by the very un-Dutch summer weather we've been experiencing. Temperatures in the high 20's celsius to the 30's (80-90F to some of us) has found me melting in a shady spot, fondly remembering those days in Massachusetts when we would spend the afternoon at the mall, just for the A/C! Oh, how I miss those rattling, old, window air-conditioning units that I used to nobly refuse to use, unless it was so hot I could fry a piece of bacon on the countertops, in my quest to be green.
Anyone new to living in northern Europe finds the idea of no air conditioning bizarre and, dare I say it, uncivilized. "I stayed in a London hotel and had no A/C!" I once heard a surprised American gentleman explain, as if this was equal to brown water pouring from the taps. Yes, there are times when arctic air blasting around the house would be greeted with unbridled enthusiasm but summers when it's needed are few and far between. I do remember summers as a child, when we would listen to Wimbledon on the radio whilst sat in our paddling pool, and can remember clearly my mum ironing outside but recently those type of summers have been rare.
As northern Europeans we are not prepared for any extremes of temperature, we live in a temperate climate, which means, "marked by moderation; keeping or held between limits; not extreme or excessive" according to Miriam Webster's dictionary, but they also say, "moderate in indulgence of appetite, desire and use of alcoholic beverages" so they have obviously never met a Brit or a Dutchman!
Our handling of extreme heat is a little worrying.....imbibing huge quantities of cold beer ~ OK, thats not so bad; exposing "never before touched by the sun" corpse-white bodies in public places ~ this can be very unpleasant for observers and also for the owner the next day; the strange need to open all the windows and curtains to let the hot air into the house; the idea that jogging at midday in 90F will be fine ~ causing the EMT's to scrape yet another fitness junky into the back of the ambulance, and the desire to stand over a hot, smoky barbecue and burn meat.
Having just read in the news that we are set for another heatwave in the coming week I thought I'd share some survival tips ~
* Don't take a cold shower, this will just close your pores and make it difficult to sweat. Take a tepid shower instead.
* Avoid alcohol! It dehydrates you more. Drink water.
* Eat small meals &, apparently, spicy food, which makes you sweat more, so cooling you down.
* Eat frozen yogurt instead of ice cream, it contains more water so helps with rehydration.
* Keep the curtains drawn.
* Keep a damp cloth in the freezer to use when you are hot.
* Put your sheets in the refrigerator a couple of hours before going to bed.
* Lick your wrists or run cold water over them, it helps cool the blood.
* Don't jog/exercise/ride a bike in the heat of the day.
* Wear lightweight, light colored clothes.
* Take care of pets, senior citizens and young children.
* Use fans to keep air circulating
So, in the next few days you can find me laying down in my darkened living room, having a small curry whilst repeatedly licking my wrists, wrapped in my chilled sheets looking like Lawrence Of Arabia, with a large sweating glass of water (next to my very cold beer), watching Fargo and remembering those cold, icy days of winter that we all complained about, with gale force winds blowing around me from the fans stationed around the room!
Come on...without the weather what would we talk to our neighbors about!
Keep cool!
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