Hot And Bothered

My Dear Fellows and Dear Princess,

Er Indoors and I have been a pair of crosspatches today. It's the heat. The demned, demned, HEAT don't'ch'a know.

And that incessant DRUMMING. Will it never CEASE??

Sorry. It's just that hot weather makes me go all "Boy's Own Adventure" and I start fantasising about hacking my way through the jungle, or trekking through the desert, pursued by Dervishes.

But yes. It has been hot. We have fans everywhere and I've eaten so many ice-lollies I could build a log cabin from the sticks. I don't know that it's hotter here than during the Scottish summer. Certainly not as hot as the German one, but it's the houses we live in over here. You hear whining Poms complaining about them on expat sites all the time.

You see, most houses (including ours) are what they call "weatherboard". Simple timber frames with wood cladding. They do have what they call "brick and tile" houses here too, but they are considered VERY la-di-da. 

Just so you know, you people in the UK are VERY posh and spoilt.

Weatherboard houses are actually fine, but I find they trap the heat and don't keep out the cold. So we need something to help us regulate the inner temperature. We don't have flash things like central heating here.

Again. La-di-la.

They have "heat pumps" here instead. These are units that sit up high on one wall and push cold air out and suck hot air in. Or vice-versa. So a heat pump serves as both an air conditioning unit or a heater.

Unfortunately our house has no heat pump. We have wall heaters when we need to keep warm, and I bought a Dyson hot/cold fan to supplement them. But still, I was sitting under a blanket for most evenings in  September, until the weather turned in October. Now in the middle of summer I have the opposite problem. The Dyson is on "cold" mode all the time. But it still isn't enough.

So I bought THIS bad boy. It's a portable a/c unit with ducting that goes out the window. It's supposed to be quiet, but I think it's relative. I suppose it is quiet in comparison to parking a light aircraft in your living room, or having Björk sing outside your window. But I wouldn't actually call it "quiet" myself.

Still, I don't mind it. We have parked it in the hallway, in the theory that if we cool down the MIDDLE of the house, the rest will follow. It seems to be working and things are a bit more bearable today. Although this may be partly due to clouds on the horizon and rain forecast overnight.

Also, tempers have cooled in the household. I think Er Indoors and I both know we are only crabby because of the heat. And also because we disagreed about how/where to set up the a/c unit. DIY - even in simple forms - brings out the worst in both of us and we know it. 

But now, peace reigns. I say, PEACE REIGNS. CAN YE HEAR ME OVER THE AIR CONDITIONING??

Oh, never mind.

S.