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Location: Blogs Simon and Melody's Blog |
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| Posted by: supersi |
Friday, July 21, 2006 |
Some interesting things in the news this past week. Peace in the Middle East, money growing on trees, a drought in London, and someone claiming to see Elvis alive. Wot?? Did you say a *dought* in London??
Yes, a drought in the Land of Sandwiches and (winter) Drizzle. If anyone was worried we would be missing the hot, muggy Toronto summer, please spare your pity for someone else. British temperatures this week exceeded such holiday destinations as Malta, Athens, Bermuda, Rome and the Gaza Strip. Last Wednesday, at 36.6C, the hottest July day ever in England was recorded. As for rain, I dunno, maybe you’ll find it somewhere in Germany still crying over the World Cup.
The interesting difference here, is that a scorching day like this simply means “an unbearably hot day”, whereas in Toronto it would mean “an unbearably hot day with rolling brownouts”. The reason of course, is that the only places here with air conditioning are offices, shopping malls, and somewhere at the bottom of an iced caramel macchiato. So if you want to feel sorry for us – just send us an air conditioner. Actually send one for the London Underground too. The temperature in the Tube reached up to 52C last week. Ugh!
In Toronto this type of heat would force people inside to crank the A/C and roll their eyes at the ensuing power crises. But in moderately temped England, the heat caused a few more problems than normal.
Speed restrictions were placed on London Underground and National Rail trains for safety reasons, as some parts of track started to buckle in the heat. Gravel had to be spread on melting asphalt roads. An ambulance crew had "severe difficulties" getting to an accident because hot motorists abandoned their cars in search of shade. But the worst of it was saved for the BBC Midlands weather team on Wednesday: they arrived at work to discover that their graphics only featured temperatures as high as 32C, and there was an early morning scramble to remake the images with numbers up to 38.
But, they survived, and so shall we. As for the tourists? Well if you were wondering what all those pink piles of goo were on the sidewalk, followed closely by a camera, empty water bottle, Tilley hat and accessories… no, a molten tourist has never been a pretty site. Yuck. |
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Re: And Then the Unthinkable Happened |
By Anonymous on
Monday, July 24, 2006 |
hmmm...note to self - try iced caramel macchiato...I've been subsisting on iced cafe con leches lately! Hope you're surviving ok!
Hayley |
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