Sweltering

A heatwave in November.
Sweat.
Watermelon.
Sunscreen.
AIR CONDITIONING!!!

Finally some relief

The weather has cooled at last.  It’s funny how quickly you get used to situations- we had pretty much become accustomed to staying housebound all day in the airconditioning, only venturing out to the clam pool on the deck.  I can’t wait for tomorrow when we may be able to go for a bikeride at the beach, or play in the park.

I think I want to clarify something that I wrote the other day.  I said I would feel guilty about spending time away from Ash unnecessarily.  But, that’s not actually true- I want to spend that time with him so I wouldn’t really consider doing it (ie: sending him to daycare while I hang out at home).  I guess I feel guilty about the fact that I often want “me” time but it’s hard to claim that time.

Anyway, the only real news I have is that the temperature has finally dropped.  Hallelujah.

Heat wave

It’s been very hot in Adelaide.  Today actually feels cooler, but it’s still 40 degrees!!!!!

The heatwave has actually made me feel a little stressed.  What if this is what summer is going to be like from now on- constantly getting hotter & hotter for longer & longer periods of time?  I feel overwhelmed by global warming.  The temperature is increasing so what do we do…….we use more energy to try to keep ourselves cool!  Almost everyone has airconditioning here & because everyone is using it 24 hours a day, there are power shortages.  To try to make it fair, they have rolling stoppages for each area.  So far, we’ve only lost power for 45 minutes, so I think we’ve been lucky.

Everyone’s grumpy & bad-tempered & complaining.  Elderly people have died.  Children can’t sleep at night.  Trees are distressed.  Animals are suffering.

I wish there were some solutions!  I am going to look into solar power panels for our roof.  At least then I might not feel so guilty about using so much energy on airconditioning.

When I first moved to Adelaide, I remember some of the hottest days I’d ever experienced up until that time.  I couldn’t believe that it could be so hot & dry.  It was so different to the humidity that I was used to that it made me feel sick.  But even though it was hot, it would generally only be for one or two days at a time, then a cool change would come through.

Last summer was pretty hot.  I remember being pregnant with this huge belly & Paul was renovating the bathroom so we had no shower- I’d just lay in the (portable) spa in our driveway like a whale.  And then when Ash was a few weeks old, there was a terrible heatwave that lasted 2 weeks with temperatures over 40 degrees every day.  It’s a bit of a blur to me because I was suffering the shock of having an unsettled baby (I’m sure the heat didn’t help in that regard!), baby blues & sleep deprivation for the first time in my life.  

It was an unexpected thing to happen in March & maybe we thought it was some kind of freak occurrence.  Unfortunately, it feels like heatwaves are maybe something we need to get used to.  This heatwave has involved the third hottest day on record- 46 degrees.  It shows no real signs of getting better anytime soon either- they expect another week of high temperatures.

Anyway, I don’t want to be all “woe is me”, “the world is coming to an end”.  I’m sure good memories come out of these times too.  For instance, last night, instead of Ash having a bath, all three of us jumped into our clam shell wading pool on our deck, splashing each other, enjoying white wine spritzers.  Obviously Ash didn’t partake in the latter, but he did have a great time…