Recent temperatures have been above normal, if I have anything to say about it. Which I do, because this is my blog and I can say anything I want. The official statistics may of course lean whichever way.
Maybe it’s because of my office. Where I work right now, we have a constant indoor temperature of about 27 to 28 degrees Celsius (about 80-82 Fahrenheit). There’s supposed to be A/C, but it is woefully inadequate, even in normal weather. Temperature dropped to “normal” levels just as we had a large fan installed, which oscillates between providing a cool breeze for me and my colleague in our room. But our room is comparatively cold — the guys down the hallway probably have 29 or 30 degrees to work in on hot days.
My apartment is not much better either. Temperatures rarely go below 27 degrees. It’s probably because I’m living on the top floor (the seventh), and all the heat generated by the apartments below me tend to end up in my place. Usually I have to open the balcony door to vent out the excess heat, and if I don’t keep it open, then I usually wake up at 3 or 4 o’clock at night and suffocating from heat.
I don’t know what it is, but I’m taking cold weather much better than warm weather nowadays. I kind of long for those -20 Celsius we had this winter (-4 F). Part of that, I think, is because it’s easier to warm up by adding more layers of clothing, than it is cooling down. There is only a certain amount of clothing you can remove before pure modesty sets in and blocks the path, whether in private or in public.
The only right thing to do, in those cases, is to turn on the fan, crash in the chair in my living room, and play Ray Charles’ “In the Heat of the Night” on the stereo. At least that makes me feel like I’m in Georgia.
Greetings from an even hotter Bosnia! When I first came here I didn’t like the houses with
their thick, heavy brick and putty (I don’t know what else to call it – it is some sort of
sandmix from river sand that cover the indoor walls). They are like dark caves compared
to the bright and light Scandinavian homes.
But one needs to spend but a year in this area to realise that those caves are needed. They are
built to protect against the heat and sun which dominate during spring, summer and autumn.
Swedish houses are built to keep the cold out and are no good for hot summers. In the same way
Balkan houses are mean, mean, mean in the winter.
Sleep naked, wear white and light, sandals instead of shoes, put on a nice hat or cap and make
strawberry gazpacho (I read there is currently an overflow of strawberries in Sweden)
The movie “In the Heat of the Night” with Sydney Poitier is also good. Maybe not for cooling
down, but good.
What you say reminds me of the homes in Florida. They’re just enormous concrete slabs in the shape of walls and ceilings. Pretty cool and nice during the day, but very very cold if a cold spell sets in! I know I woke up a couple of times in such a home and freezing! And usually there’s very little heating either.
The movie you mentioned is very good. Although I get too stirred up from watching it. Takes me a while to cool off. :)