Monday 12 June 2006

Pic of the day: Norwegian ice-cream, not low-fat type. I regret that.

Hot hot hot!

I don't remember much from yesterday except the heat. I have finally set up my electric fan in the home office, and it does make it bearable despite 34 degrees Celsius. But it makes it bearable by sitting in constant wind, which is probably not the healthiest thing one can do. But it is that or repeated baths. Particularly wet hair seems to help against the heat wave.

I bought ice cream, and ate large amounts. I am not sure how much fat there is in it. Too much fat will make me sick, although I think the limit has been moved upward since last year. Whether or not the ice cream was at fault, I did get sick today. More about that soon.

Even my computer flashed numerous warnings at me that the internal temperature was above the safe margins. It makes it a bit more difficult to play City of Heroes when these boxes open every few seconds. Still, I managed to help a random hero get through three missions, so I guess it's OK. Her missions were just too tough, but my level 40 defender exemplared down and helped. I seem to do that a lot when I'm playing these days, exemplaring down. This is a game option to lower down to the same level as another player, temporarily losing most of the benefits from one's higher levels but keeping a more efficient use of the powers I would have had at their level. Any associations to other parts of life are of course purely coincidental.

***

This morning I woke up slightly earlier than usual, perhaps because I had taken my night's sleep in one long session instead of two hours in the evening and four hours in the morning as I recently have. I felt surprisingly awake, and sat up. Or tried. A wave of dizziness forced me back down. I tried again, and after a couple more tries managed to sit in my bed. I realized that this would not be a workday. A while later I could walk, but my sense of direction was not quite aligned with my eyes. The room was not spinning, but it was wobbling, as if gravity was not quite fixed in the area of my peripheral vision.

I notified my boss, and started to catch up with my private computer activities. A while later my digestion acted up. Luckily I was just moderately queasy, but the opposite end of the digestive tract did not show the same moderation. Some very rapid weight loss ensued. But after a few hours I recovered, so tomorrow I'll go to work again.

The heat is also causing problems at work, I hear, but I am not allowed to write about that.

The landlord's mother called me at work yesterday and encouraged me to use the metal stripes that can be pulled down to cover the inside of the windows, reflecting much of the light back out. (I cannot remember what those are called in English, none of my English friends seem to talk about them.) (Found a picture of them... they are called "sheer blinds" or "sheer shades".) This would save on the curtains and furniture. I readily agreed. This may have helped keeping the heat down, but if so I really don't want to experience what it could have been. Today I also found out that I could use some heavy textile that is mounted externally and can be pulled down to cast the windows in shadow. Yay! (Found picture, seems to be called "awning". Thank you Google!) My English friends don't talk much about those either. Then again in England it supposedly rains, mostly. And in the USA, people use air condition, from what I gather.

***

Since nothing says itself, I will mention that I don't take voluntary walks in this heat. Even this weekend, when it was less oppressive than now, I wished that I had brought with me a bottle of water to keep my hair wet. It is a pretty efficient way to keep from overheating. Of course drinking the water helps too, but I already did that before I left home.

I have barely made dinner at all since summer came, and certainly not these last few days. Instead I have been sticking mostly to yogurt, and now ice cream, and sometimes frozen yogurt. Though occasionally I will eat a lunch sandwich (or rather the local equivalent). The idea of cooking or roasting anything while I am being treated similarly myself ... well, to be honest it is probably more that I can't stand the heat so I stay out of the kitchen.

This attitude at least I seem to have in common with my American friends, not least metaphorically. Although I notice that President W. Bush made a trip to Iraq just now. Then again, it was a very short trip. I am sure many other Americans wished their stay was similarly short. And to the people in Baghdad, my life here must seem more or less like Paradise, just without the beautiful virgins. And I can live with that shortcoming for now. I am quite hot enough as is...