Sweating it Out

Another hot day and I have to say that I'm really struggling with the heat.  I can't seem to motivate myself to do much at all. Yesterday, on one of my days off, I caught a class at the gym in the morning and then did a top up food shop and from then on I gave up and binge watched the new series of Anne with an E (based on Ann of Green Gables) on Netflix.

I feel super unproductive, but I just can't bring myself to go outside.  If I manage the laundry and washing up and load/unload the dishwasher, I feel like I've achieved something big.  Is anyone else feeling the same way?

Today, I feel a little more comfortable. I have walked the dog, (keeping to the shady side of the streets), hung some washing out inside and washed the vegetables that OH harvested from the allotment. OH has got  out the air conditioner, that we bought last year when the weather turned very hot, but was only used once or twice. It makes the kitchen much more bearable, but I still can't bring myself to venture outside. Even the dog has stayed inside today and is currently sat at my feet underneath the kitchen table.

I have even taken to buying plastic water bottles this year, (please don't judge me), which I never do, and freezing them, so that the defrosting bottle cools me on the way to work and keeps me hydrated with lovely cold water for most of the day, when I remember to drink it, that is. What I should do is try to freeze a reusable plastic bottle and see if that works as well. It would be much more sustainable.

I've also been keeping the freezer stocked with ice lollies to help cool us down.  If we had a freezer box at work, I'd do it there too. Instead, we've been fighting over the fans.  The one in the office I use always gets taken to the office upstairs (that I don't use), and I'm left with no fan.  I took one out of the stockroom on Wednesday and put it in my office, only for someone to take it back into the stockroom again, where there are four others.  I wasn't happy. Being a woman of a certain age, having a fan is even more essential for me, but I'm not going to go around telling people that.

As a consequence of the weather, I personally am being very neglectful of the allotment and garden.  OH has been over to water and harvest a couple of times since we came back from Portugal, but I haven't set foot over there yet, which is a bit naughty. It's just so exposed, with no shade at all.

We've got a bit of a glut of tomatoes and French beans at the moment. We're slowly working our way through it. There's lots of cut and come again lettuce in the raised beds in the garden too, which we are eating. I'd love to be outside gardening, but I just can't face it.

Having said all of this, I'm very grateful not to be in Portugal right now where temperatures are predicted to rise to over 40 degrees centigrade this week. It's bad enough here at 35 degrees. Will I ever get used to this hot weather? I'm not sure I will, maybe I just need to stop whingeing just get out there and get on with things regardless.

If anyone has any tips regarding how to keep your cool in this weather, I'd be happy to hear them.