Heat Wave

Thursday 16th January 2014.

This heat is horrid. For those of you following in the northern hemisphere,  prepare to be jealous, fuming or just plain grumpy as I set out to have a good sook about how bloody hot it is here in Australia right now.

We have been experiencing a heat wave this week of temperatures no lower than 40 degrees Celcius. That’s over 100F. The precise conversion escapes me, I just remember that 104F is something ridiculously hot, and that was from reading a book when I was young about a family living in the ouback. Plus, it’s just too darn hot to think and work it out!

Yesterday I was dumb enough to venture out with the kids to travel interstate to do some shopping. I figured, shopping centres have air conditioning and we’ll leave early enough to not catch too much in the car.

WRONG!

My car battery was flat so we left more than an hour after we were ready to go. And of course, the sun popped its freakishly heated head out from behind the clouds as I called roadside assistance to get a jump start. Nice timing sun. Go back to bed please. Now!

We managed to get a car park in a shady spot, but that only helps so much. After relaxing (if you can call shopping with three kids relaxing …) in the cool of the centre, the first hit of the heat outside is hot, but mostly bearable. It’s only as you continue to keep your slightly crazy ass in the sun for a while, that you start to melt. And I mean melt. Sweat flows in rivulets down your forehead. Salt stings your eyes and sunglasses get all gunky with salt deposits from the sweat. Charming stuff.

So, here I was, with three munchkins, loading our wares into the back of the car and smartness here decides we’ll pop over to the hardware store too. Oh man, I think I lost my brain in the hour drive from home! At least the store was really cool. And we did get what I went in there for. The kids had a great time running around with the kid sized trolleys they had. Good thing the store was pretty empty otherwise there would’ve been some grief happening. Then I just had to see some ‘easy install’ washing lines for $8. The bargain hunter in me went “Woohoo!” and it wasn’t until we were half way across the scorching car park that the pragmatist in me ventured forth and whispered “And how are you going to fit these in the car?”

Oh crap.

By the time I’d figured out they weren’t going to fit in the boot/trunk, we were dripping once again and I was ready to rip something apart. They fit in the front seat. Shouldn’t have taken me that long to work out, but, given the brain frying temperature, I forgave myself for being a noodle.

Sigh. After visiting one other shopping centre and visiting a friend, who blessedly had air con and wasn’t afraid to use it, we made the trek home. At least at that time of the afternoon, the sun was behind us and the wind cooled the car down. I did try the air con – it was supremely useless and just made the car stuffier. So the windows went down. Eh. You take what you can get.

So, today while it’s heating up to somewhere around 45C or more, we’re smartly inside, with air con and all fans going. The windows and curtains are shut tight. The table is covered in things to colour in and the TV is on. I’ve done all the laundry and even smashed a glass table in the process. That was my spectacular FUBAR moment this morning. That’s right, I hadn’t even made it to lunch time before I had spectacularly messed up (insert more appropriate word of choice there!). I’ve swept up the glass into a pile to deal with later when it’s not as hot. I won’t say cooler, as I highly doubt there’ll be anything ‘cool’ happening until the weekend. I have no plans on going out again unless it’s absolutely necessary and that’s the smartest thing I’ve done all day.