Bloody Hell, It's Hot

It's been sweltering here in the UK over the past few days. OK, I know if you're living in the Midwest of the US at the moment, you're thinking, "you have no idea what we're going through right now," but you have to understand that this is NOT normal for the UK. Living in Wisconsin, I expected stretches of hot spells where it was 90°F (32°C) and the heat index exceeded 100°F (38°C). Whereas here in the UK, I never really expect the temperature to exceed 80°F (27°C), let alone get that hot and be really muggy.


I guess the hot spell wouldn't seem so bad if I was in a hospital that had air conditioning. I guess the people building the hospital also didn't think the temperatures here would exceed 30°C too often, and did not see air conditioning as a necessity. I'm happy I have some experience dealing with this, as it doesn't seem that many of the natives are coping as well as me. And I can only imagine what the nurses are going through with all the running around they have to do.


At least this isn't Geneva, Switzerland. I spent a few weeks there last summer when my boyfriend lived there, and there was quite a heatwave the second week I was there. There is virtually no air conditioning anywhere in that city (not even the mall was air conditioned!). The best bets for relief were the trams, some buses and McDonald's. Luckily, McDonald's had the Cornetto McFlurry at the time, which is probably the best McFlurry ever, aside from maybe the Oreo McFlurry they have during the "Tastes of America" campaign in the UK. The worse I've had was in Amsterdam, some horrible Dole fruit cocktail McFlurry (or so it seemed, I think it was branded as Chiquita, which I thought meant banana and chocolate). Sadly, McFlurries in the US pale in comparison to those offered in Europe, as do the speciality burgers. Anyway, I digress, the McFlurries in Geneva and the special "snack" burgers (they had one with mozzarella, basil and roasted tomato) gave us plenty of excuses to escape the heat.


At least Britain is finally getting a taste of summer. Before we know it, tomorrow probably, it will be gone again.