Seriously Weather?!

Afternoon All!

So for those who don’t live in the UK or maybe aren’t aware, yesterday we had a record-breaking temperature for a July day in the UK, with the hottest temperature recorded reaching 36.7°C at Heathrow, though I imagine the sheer amount of air traffic that flies through there probably didn’t help matters. Just to put that into perspective, these records began around 1880, or if I quote a BBC article “When someone says ‘since records began’, they probably mean ‘since about 1880’.”

Going to the gym was certainly a relief, with the air conditioning going and fewer people in the evenings as usual, it meant that, for once, I actually left cooler than I’d been going in! It was especially relieving as I woke up with a minor case of heat rash (I’m quite sensitive to heat and sunlight) and bad sleep, despite having my windows wide open and light covers.

The reason I’m writing this article today though is to offer some ideas on how to keep cool, or at least cooler than you could otherwise be. While drinking cold drinks and switching on a fan can help there are other small things you can do to reduce the impact of the sun on you and your home without too much effort.

• Keep the windows that are letting the light in covered, preferably from the outside. Trying folding cardboard boxes out into their flattened forms, or ‘nets’ like from maths class. If you fold them out so you get good long lengths of cardboard you can cover the windows and prevent the suns rays getting in your rooms in the first place. If you don’t have any boxes try popping into a supermarket when they’re restocking the shelves later in the evening. They’re usually more than happy for you to take some. Another thing to do that is similar, though not as effective, is to close the blinds/curtains on the side of the house that is getting the intense part of the sunlight.
• Have a drink near the bed at night, if nothing else it’ll mean if you feel dehydrated during the night you can just reach down for it instead of waking yourself up more by going to get it from the kitchen.
• Have salads and other cool meals that don’t add to the house temperature from cooking or making yourself warming once you’ve eaten. Also on a humid day this means less water vapour around thanks to boiling veg on the stove.
• If you have a shower before bed don’t make it too cold, from experience your body tries to compensate if you get too cold which means you do end up getting warmer later on. Of course if you go to sleep easily usually the cold shower might last long enough for you to get to sleep, so I’ll leave this to personal preference. However a mid temperature shower can wash away the sweat and make you feel better in bed, so there’s that!
• If noise doesn’t bother you or you have a quiet fan, they make a difference to the temperature by helping to blow the sweat from your body. It might not reduce the temperature per say, but it can make the difference, or of course you can try blowing the hot air out through a window with it!
• Finally, try wearing as little as possible. I personally wear a t-shirt and comfortable trousers then slip something light on over the t-shirt to protect my skin if I go outside. At night, consider making do without a cover or just stay partially covered.

I hope some of those ideas helped, and for now I’m off to get (another) drink, hope you enjoy the weather!