I woke up to the most unusual text from Jon today:
Good morning baby! It's another sunny day :) xxx
Do you know how often this happens? Never. It never happens. Okay, well, it does happen sometimes - when I was in London for a week in July 2007, I managed to get a tan - but it's rare. Much of England is actually on a Level Three heatwave alert right now; they haven't seen six consecutive days with temperatures above 30ºc (86ºf) since 2006.
Now, I know a lot of my readers live in places where it gets much hotter and more miserable. (Hey, Whitney!) The thing is, weather is relative. I remember a friend telling me about a late-spring trip to Alaska - temperatures were in the high 50s, which was quite chilly for her, but all the locals were cavorting in t-shirts and shorts because it felt positively balmy to them. England simply isn't used to prolonged periods of weather in the upper 20s, let alone above 30ºc. Here's my favorite line from one of the news articles about the heatwave:
"The UK has seen 132 hours of sunshine between July 1 and July 15, which is 77 per cent of the average sunshine for the whole month."
See what I mean? They're basically in uncharted territory here. And they don't really know how to cope with it. Everyone's having a blast with the fun stuff of course; apparently stores are reporting record sales of Pimm's, strawberries, barbecues, outdoor furniture, and sunscreen After all, a bright evening in the garden can turn even the worst day around! But it can be quite serious. Most buildings and almost all houses/flats don't have air conditioning. Ice isn't regularly given out in "cold" drinks like it is in America. The cooling systems on public transportation are spotty at best. And between 540 and 760 people have died in England already due to the heat.
I don't mean to be a downer except to encourage you to be smart if you're in England at the moment. It is gorgeous out there, no question! London is absolutely lovely in the sunshine, the countryside is erupt in full glorious color - even Wales is basking in it. I wish I were back across the pond to enjoy it with Jon! Let's hope that the good weather holds for the next five weeks. Well, it can cool of a bit between now and then, I suppose, but keep your fingers crossed for us that we have sunshine and warmth for our wedding in 36 days! In the meantime, I'll remind myself of what I'm missing with some photos from my final days in London just a week and a bit ago...
more like this from my Instagram!
