It’s too hot just now to do any serious blogging.
Yesterday we went from rather pleasantly warm/hot to clammy, headachy hot. The indoors temperature rose to above 26° (79°F) which I’ve come to recognize as my “limit”. Above that I get irritable and grumpy!
(That does not mean I never get irritable below 26°C. Above 26° it’s more predictable, though!)
Living in a town flat, evenings also tend to get very noisy when everyone keeps their balcony doors and windows open because of the heat.
One of the major things to irritate me is people who seem to think they “own the world” (like playing their music as loud as if they had no neighbours for miles around). And one of the things that mystify me is why people seem to want ther music four times as loud in summer compared to winter, anyway.
I shut my balcony door and windows when going to bed (if not before), but when I wake up later in the night (as I invariably do) I open up to let some cool night air in. This night I got a few hours exhausted sleep after midnight, then was awake 3:30-7:30, then fell asleep again and slept until 10. Well, I guess I should be thankful (and I am!) that at least I’m free to do that… It makes an odd start to the day though.
The day did not get better when I turned on the computer and found trouble with my Yahoo email. My emails are there but I can’t open them. It must be their server as the same thing happens on the phone app.
Nothing much I can do except wait and trust that they’re working on it, I suppose!
In the meantime, I’ll have to go into town for a while after lunch, and I suppose I might as well stick to that plan; as it will be hot at home anyway.
But I’m not going stay in town until evening…
The photo is from two Thursdays ago. On Thursdays in July the shops in the town centre are open later than usual, and then there are free concerts in the square. A tradition since many years, and very popular. Often the square and the streets nearby are packed with people during the concerts. As I’m not fond of crowds and very loud music, I’m not in the habit of attending, though. This photo was taken in the late afternoon and I bet the girls sitting by the fence below the stage were already “queuing” for a good place.
One thing for which I’m truly thankful (especially on summer Thursday nights) is that I do not live in one of the buildings right next to the town square! In fact, I live just far away enough from the town centre not to be bothered by these events. Just now I keep my fingers crossed that the noisy neighbours will be going, though! (i.e. not stay home and play their own music)
that was going to be my question but you answered it before i asked if you were close to the town square to hear the music. we are close enough to a high school to hear their band practice and they practice for hours and hours and when they have ball games it gets really loud.... my comfort level is 76 F at 79 and i really grumpy... here our house goes to 85 if we did not have AC... it is 90 outside and i am just staying inside...
ReplyDeleteIt's when one can't find relief from the heat (and/or noise) indoors in one's own home that it gets tiresome... Nowhere to flee to!
DeleteSo sorry you have had a bad time lately. I imagine you do not have any air conditioning because you rarely have days that are this hot? That is one reason I am glad we live in a house, after fifteen years of apartment living. We never had to do yard work, but we had t put up with a lot of noise and could not keep our T.V. or radio above a whisper...
ReplyDeleteGinny, you're right about the air conditioning. It's not really that many days a year that there is need of it here. Which means most private homes don't have it - and neither do most small shops and offices. Until this week I've used a duvet most nights; even though the days have been warm and sunny for rather a long period, the nights have not been all that hot.
DeleteInconsiderate neighbours close to you must be incredibly annoying. As for the heat is a portable air conditioning unit a possibility?
ReplyDeleteIt would have to be VERY small and easy to move... I've not seriously looked into it. One thing to consider is that I'm rather sensitive to draught as well! I do have two table fans - they don't cool the air though, just help circulate it. Just now the forecasts say that the weather is likely to cool off a bit again over the weekend. And tonight it's quiet (so far) so I'm having door and windows open. One advantage of living in town is that at least there are very few insects (midges etc) to worry about!
DeleteEven though I live in the tropics, I get irritable when the heat gets overbearing too.
ReplyDeleteHang in there.
Please don't get me started on inconsiderate neighbours.
It is Ramadan right now, as far as I know, and this means that my neighbours - who are almost all Muslims - have plenty of folks over late in the evening to have long, noisy meals together out on the patio, underneath my bedroom window. I can not and will not sleep with my windows shut when it is like this (around 32 Celsius during the day), and therefore, I am really thankful for my earplugs. Not the most comfortable way to sleep, but if I have the choice between not sleeping at all and sleeping with some discomfort, I choose the latter.
ReplyDeleteI have Muslim neighbours too and in fact I think those in the flat making most noise are Muslims too. Just now however I suspect parents to be away and teenagers partying... Not the typical Ramadan kind of music. Anyway tonight I've had to resort to earplugs as well and even that is not enough. We also have very hot weather so it's really unbearable! Never been this bad before the five years I've lived here.
ReplyDeleteJo has had the same problem with Yahoo e-mails so it must be the server.
ReplyDeleteOur problem is having a nursing home next door where there is activity all through the night - shift changes, cutlery and crockery banging as dining rooms are prepared, breakfast cooking to the sound of Radio 1, cigarette breaks taken outdoors where it seems necessary to shout into mobile phones or shout across the car park to one's colleagues (why do young people have to shout to communicate??) etc etc. In other words it used to come down to open windows and noise or ridiculous temperatures. I have found a third alternative - ear plugs and white noise - a fan that is loud enough to drown out any other noise but not too mechanical to be annoying.
I think I start getting irritated at about 24 degrees and by 26 I'm pulling my hair out; which could explain my bald patch. For some reason my bedroom is the hottest room in the house - downstairs in the conservatory the large glass windows make it cool quickly and it's great down there. Perhaps I'll move the rooms about (or perhaps Jo won't let me).
I can well imagine that must be very annoying sometimes, John.
DeleteI don't like using earplugs (not as a regular habit anyway), and besides, I'm used to listening to audio books when going to sleep and when awake in the night... (player set on timer) I do use fans for white noise though (and for circulation of air). I have one in the kitchen which at night I let blow into the bedroom (it stands on a kind of teatray on wheels). But today I went out and bought a new kind of blade-less fan which I'm going to try out in the bedroom. It has some advantages over the usual kind but it also makes more noise - I'm not sure yet whether that will prove to be a good thing or a bad thing!
I meant tea trolley, not tray....
DeleteI laughed to myself about your version of a hot day. If the maximum temperature here was ever as low as 26C we would all be complaining about the cold!! Usually it is 31 or up to 34C. I save the word hot for days when the perspiration drips down my face. Some places have temperatures over 50C and I am glad I do not live there.
ReplyDeleteLouise, n.b. 26 referred to indoors in my flat at night and it's been higher, I'm just saying I don't feel well when that's the case. Outdoors on my balcony on a sunny summer afternoon it's often 35 or higher (too hot for me). I've never had any serious longing to visit tropic climates.
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