As I type, the fan is hissing away in the corner, making some currents in the air. Because they carry a little of the cool of morning, these are welcome relief from the heatwave. My shutters are closed to preserve what’s left. Outside, at 9am, it’s already 27 degrees and in the day temperatures have soared to 42 degrees in the shade. This means that most fans feel like hair-driers, and you start to go a little crazy. You’d give your entire salary for the week for a big, cool slice of watermelon; luckily, these are so plentiful that they’re almost giving them away. The other day, I went for an ice coffee but the outdoor café was deserted; it was too hot, even under the parasols. Nearby, people were standing fully clothed under some kind of sprinkler system.All round the city, various stinks have been let loose: foul-sweet decay, a mild smell of sewage and something fungal. The sources of these are obscure, buried somewhere. If I arrive home without having done all the dishes and wiped all the surfaces spotless, there will be an army of ants massing on every wooden spoon and missed drop of fruit juice. It's the kind of weather to listen to Crosby, Stills & Nash. Or have a cold shower and then dry off in front of a fan.
13 comments:
Your entry makes me glad I live in sunless chilly Aberdeen, where I do not have to share my kitchen with ants.
yes - the ants are a bit of a pain. I don't want to exterminate them, but I have to contain them.
But you're a sun worshipper! It must be extreme if it's too hot even for you. Have you tried dousing yourself in a cool thermal bath? It sounds fabulous, actually. I can't recall the last time I felt the sun on my skin! The weather here is breaking records. RAIN RAIN AND RAIN. (Of biblical proportions.) The English countryside is looking good on it, though.
Does it bring back memories of Ghana?
Yes. except that I have a bath here, rather than a bucket. I filled it up cold and sat in it reading for half an hour!
Why can't you exterminate the ants?
Have you become a Buddhist or what?.
I laughed at your tale of the bath. When I was in Texas, as a student,I used to stand in the shower with all my clothes on and then spend the next few hours under the ceiling fan reading as they slowly dried and cooled me-- (My uncle had no air conditioning)
Why can't you exterminate the ants? Have you become a Buddhist or what?
When I was in Texas, as a student, I used to stand under the shower with all my clothes on, then sit under the ceiling fan reading while they dried off and cooled me. My uncle had no air conditioning.
MESSAGE FROM NEB
It can be too hot - as you have experienced - but it's preferable to too cold, I think. No sign of our disastrous "summer" improving. Admittedly, it has been better here than in many parts of England or even South-West Scotland.
Just get rid of the ants, you old hippy!
Mo, I didn't know you were in Texas - how long were you there?
Plymouth--for 2 months when I was 20, courtesy of a nice uncle.Sadly, it happened to be at just the wrong time of my life, when I was interested in ideas, not people. My uncle+aunt wanted me to mix, meet their friends and be sociable, but all I wanted to do was to get books abt existentialism from the library+sit under the fan, reading.I despised their friends, who wouldn't know what existentialism was if it jumped up and bit them. I am a bit ashamed to look back on all that, especially when I think of the lost opportunities. My uncle wanted to show me Mexico and I turned him down. Can you believe it ? What a little FOOL !!.
Mo, i commiserate with your sense of missed opportunity, but I wouldn't worry. They (the uncle and family) were probably very, very aware that you'd come from a quirky/insular/intellectual [whichever applies to greatest extent] background. And so made allowances, because you were "at that age" / "going through a pretentious stage" / etc etc. They would not have thought you rude or ignorant. Just awkward and gauche - I guarantee. And therefore they'd forgive you entirely.
Well, that comforts me.Thanks.They are all dead now, so it is too late to check. My poor uncle had arranged to take 2 weeks of his holiday to show me the sights I refused to see.
Sorry to change the subject back to a more mundane one, but I eventually killed the ants. Felt guilty - I like ants. Put down these awful "motel" things. (I didn't understand the Hungarian but the illustration was pretty clear withthis crooked-legged ant stumbling out with a kind of red haze round it...)
So, they checked in when they smelled the fresh-bread-like aroma (I had to sniff), checked out half dead and went and unwittingly poisoned their nestmates. Horrific when you think about it
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