Global warming and retirement. It really made me laugh and that’s rare and, in the case of global warming not really to be laughed at, but bear with me. Last week was hot and that’s actually quite rare but the thing was we were completely debilitated by it. On Monday and Tuesday, other than an early morning walk with the dogs before it got too sizzling, we didn’t leave the house. Mrs Summerhouse uniquely cancelled her Tuesday yoga class. As I say, an unheard of event.
We stayed in, read our books and repeatedly fell asleep. Even the dogs joined us although they were overall less impressed by our indolence. On the Monday we tried taking them out about 6 o’ clock in the evening, but frankly it was still pretty warm. On the Tuesday we didn’t even bother with this variation. Millie went quite silly when we did take her out next day, refusing to move even though it was cooler. As if she was punishing us for our, as she saw it, laziness.
Anyway the point is these two or three days, which were unusually hot for us (the country that is), shouldn’t really have been all that debilitating (that word again) because we have, throughout our lives, been here before.
Our love of the heat, well the sun anyway, goes right back to the beginning of our relationship. So these early holidays consisted of lying in the sun on the beaches of Ibiza, Yugoslavia, various parts of France and just cooking. Skin cancer? Pah, these were the days of sun tans being highly desirable and never mind the consequences – sunstroke at worst and a bikini line (if you were female or male equivalent) as a slightly irritating lesser result. But the point was that we liked baking, we liked the heat.
Of course we were young then but even later in life we coped with the heat in various settings. Our first long term stay in Washington DC was unbelievably hot and furthermore, apparently the humidity, which was far more debilitating (must find another word), was reckoned to be 95%. Just like spending your life under a hot shower. This was new, but we coped.
Not content with that experience we later went to live in New Zealand. While it wasn’t always hot we had times and locations that definitely were. And still we coped. Life went on. There was no staying indoors, reading and sleeping our life overseas away.
Then the doozy of all overseas experiences, living for a year in Western Australia with only marginal air-conditioning (another story). This was definitely hot in summer. Our first experience of 40+degrees. We actually chose to ‘do’ the outback, even the Nullarbor Plain, although admittedly mostly on the train. And still we coped. Throw in short visits to places like Singapore and Bangkok, places where we stayed for just a few days so obviously we had to make the most of being there, hot or not. And they were, hot that is.
Meanwhile back in the UK we continue to deal badly with hot weather, ranging from hosepipe bans and moorland fires to the full Monty of Global Warming* with some compensation in the form of decent grape harvests. It’s not much on the balance sheet but it’s something.
Global warming and retirement summary
So in the context of Global Warming, a potentially good harvest, as I say it’s not much to counter-balance dying of heat stroke in old age as reportedly quite a few of us are doing /have done. Nothing as dramatic as that for us, at least not so far. Watch this space. Oh and apologies, reading this through it’s not really about global warming it’s about us. Selfish or what?
*Incidentally I am beginning to take this Global thing more seriously every year.