Sunday, January 22, 2006

Not fit for human habitation

For the third day in a row, the temperature here in sunny Adelaide today went over 40 degrees. The tender new leaves on the lemon tree have crisped and blackened, the cats lie sprawled on the bathroom floor gazing at me reproachfully as though it were my fault, steam came off next door's outside wall when I hosed it this evening while watering the garden, the water from all the cold taps is permanently tepid and I've nearly run out of Gastrolyte.

Hot day drink:

1) find your biggest glass, and put in it
2) one slosh of Buderim Ginger Cordial (half an inch or so), then
3) half fill the glass with Berri's 'Apple juice with a hint of green tea' from the Harmonics range,
4) fill up the rest of the glass with soda and ice, and
5) sip slowly

You will feel much better. Especially if you drink it while dripping wet and standing under the ceiling fan.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's been truly freakish weather. Here in hot and usually dry rural NSW we've had ridiculous humidity, which has caused my skin to break out in all sorts of unpleasant and unsightly ways. Meanwhile, Perth is cool with days rarely topping 30 degrees -- which is highly unusual. And all you poor South Australians and Victorians have been sweltering. I blame global warming.

Oh, I'm a virgo actually...

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

I beg your pardon, Kate. I think it was your opening 'You'll all be sorry ...' that misled me.

The heat, as we stagger gasping through Day 4, is completely ludicrous. Nobody can move.

Marie said...

Would you like to come here? It was minus 40C on Thursday, though it has mellowed out into a tropical -7C now.

I still fondly remember those hot Adelaide summers when there was no relief from the relentless heat and when even the water at Semaphore was tepid - and yet I still managed to catch a cold from having the aircon on full blast while I slept during the night.

Hope you get some relief soon.

Zoe said...

What are you doing with the gastrolyte?

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

Taking it myself! (If I'd had kids, they'd be teenage or older by now.) Was once bailed out of a bad attack of dehydration in this kind of weather -- horrid and extreme symptoms including blurred vision -- by a GP friend who brought some over. Now in this kind of weather I take some every morning.

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

Marie -- 40 below sounds divine. Everybody here and in Melbourne (where yesterday it got up to 43) would love to come and visit.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to skite, but we just had a run of 40 + days for 12 days in Alice. It dropped for a few days to late 30s (relief) but now it's back to 40 + this week. This is why eggnishers are important. Not to mention spas. And yes, also sports drinks -- their electrolyte replacement is more effective than plain water after 30 mins of any kind of exercise. (Smug, tedious, health-obsessed Virgo speaks here.)

Anonymous said...

Ohhh 40 below... noice. For about a minute. And then one's fingers and toes drop off and it's all downhill from there.

I do have the advantage of having to go into a walk-in coolroom about ten times a day to stock milk and butter etc., this is the best place to be once it hits about 38 degrees as it has a constant temp of about 4 c I think.

I am a very uppity virgo as it happens! (I used to use powered gatorade myself.)

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

Elsewhere, I did feel for you during the eggnishner episode. You need a cool-room like Kate's, or failing that a trusty little evaporative air-cooler on wheels for emergencies.

We greedy and slothful Taureans spend most of our time lying around thinking up ways of acquiring more possessions, so rarely need to replenish our electrolytes except when the temperature goes over 40.

Anonymous said...

That's a lovely drink recipe, Kerryn. Thanks.
I tried to convince my older children that if they lived up north this would be normal weather (yep, it's been 43 in Melbourne too.) Then in the supermarket this morning a friend told me she wanted to move to her daughter's beachside home in Queensland because she thinks it will be cooler there!! (Let's face it, a sea breeze is a sea breeze.)

We're very close to becoming corrupt greenhouse effecters here and getting evaporative cooling - our excuse is that there are two people with epilepsy in the house, but it's a lame excuse really. After 23 years of wearing wet clothes I think we will be bumming out.