martedì, gennaio 14, 2014

Ball melting heat

Having a 40 degree week here. It's not as bad as it sounds, since we have air conditioning, but it's pretty damn bad all the same. One thing is for sure - weeks like this will help me appreciate northern European tepidity again, despite how much I used to complain about the Belgian weather. I can't say for sure how long the memory of 40 degree weeks will stop me from complaining once we go back to Northern Europe. I always wonder how long I can keep my appreciation muscles flexed . . . when we moved to Australia it took until the first swarms of mosquitoes and cockroaches descended to get sick of the tropics (months).

My guess at the moment is that I will really enjoy being back in Northern Europe in a climate-type sense until mid-winter, and then that it won't be the temperature that gets me, but SAD when the days start being only four or five hours long. Mind you they have short days in Melbourne compared to L_____ since we're so much further south. I managed but then we really did get here in the springtime, so I don't know what I'm up against. We'll see. We're moving back to Europe at the beginning of the European summer, so we'll have some time to acclimatize. Also, having been in Melbourne while it was still cold and wet, I've realized cold and wet is a lot better for kids than super fucking hot, like now here or like L_____ was. Kids can get bundled up but there are only so many layers you can take off them, particularly when they're not housebroken yet.

I've been taking Godzilla along on my runs and bike rides earlyish in the morning and then setting him down for a good play in the park to try to tire him out enough to hang out in our air-conditioned apartment for the rest of the day. It's going as well as can be expected. He could use more fresh air. I'd take him out in the evening when it cools down, too, except it doesn't really cool down in the evening here, because the heat is coming from a north wind off the desert, which stays hot all night.

So 40 degree weeks are good for nothing besides breaking my balls and getting lots of washing done. Which is good because we put Godzilla back in cloth nappies during the F-word's Christmas break. I sort of enjoyed the three-month hiatus and I suspect it might have continued, if we were able to buy the brands of disposables that we prefer in the immediate area. But I'm glad it hasn't. Godzilla has reached the point where he won't crawl anymore - would rather walk and fall over - which means that soon we'll get into housebreaking him, which in turn means he's best off in cloth nappies that help him figure out when he's peeded all over himself instead of disposables, which mask it so well.

2 commenti:

e.f. bartlam ha detto...

I just translated 40 degrees...that's our summer too (with 90-95% humidity). I wouldn't know how else to live. And I have nearly died every winter I've spent up north...from frostbite or a broken neck trying to take off unravel myself from all those coats, and jumpers and hats and gloves...or frostbite again from not being able to find my car keys because I can't remember which of the 53 pockets, now available to me, I put them in.

I love the heat and complain if it gets below 65 but, I was raised in it.

Mistress La Spliffe ha detto...

Yeah . . . there's all that. My parents also just both busted their asses on the same day falling down on the ice. But I really like doing stuff that involves not sitting in air-conditioned comfort either at home or the car, and I get a little stir-crazy in the heat because I don't have the balls to do it out in the heat.