Crackin’ the SADS
Ok, so it’s summer. Not just December-to-February kind of summer, but more the So-You-Doubt-Global-Warming-Now-Sucker kind. We’ve had an unprecedented three days of over 43ºC (109.4ºF) – yesterday topping 45ºC (112ºF) – with bushfires, blackouts and a completely melted public transport system. Despite the “cool” change last night and my windows being open all evening, the ambient temperature inside my flat is still well over 30ºC: sticky, to say the least.
And the worst part? Walking around the city after work the past few days, watching people completely unfazed by the heat. They’re quite happy in their little shorts and singlets and summer dresses, hair and make up perfect, barely a red cheek or bead of sweat to be seen. The papers have been filled with people lying on beaches in the middle of the day, relaxing in the shallows. Hang on, people . . . lying, on the beach, in the full sun, in 45ºC heat? Skin cancer, anyone?
Personally, I hate seeing the weather forecast for anything over 30ºC (86ºF). Yeah, call me a wimp, but I’m also a pasty, red-headed northern-European type. Give me winter any day. These past few days I’ve been getting dizzy spells, I can’t cook for the heat, I can’t think, I’m getting stir-crazy from being unable to go dancing or for walks . . . while everyone else is happy in their summer dresses and board shorts, I’m trudging around the city all shiny from my sunscreen, red in the face from the heat, my hair all lanky and wilted.
But the worst part? The sun. I don’t know whether it’s an excess of Vitamin D production, or if it’s just a red-head thing, but being in the sun really gets me down and stresses me out. I get miserable, grumpy, panicky, I can’t think straight, and really angry. It’s really distressing to be caught out in the sun for me. But you tell people you hate summer and they treat you like you’re The Grinch – yet if you are affected by the winter weather, you’ve apparently got Seasonal Affective Disorder and everyone piles sympathy on you.
Does anyone else experience this? Maybe because we’re so far south here in Melbourne it tilts us closer to the sun’s rays in summer, because I know I didn’t experience anything like this in Germany, where I was out in 30ºC weather in singlets, no sunscreen, and not a single extra freckle was gained, or in Fiji where the heat was pretty consistent throughout the day and the night but was much easier to cope with. Here, the sun is harsh, the heat dry, and the paceof life unchanged. Bring back winter, is all I can say . . .
Am I the only one who finds this wrong?
Ok, I’m not normally one for feminist rants, but this article on The Age website today got me ruffled – GRL power for you, mobile chick. I noticed posters for this GRL thing on the weekend around Smith Street and I wasn’t quite sure what it was on about; with it’s pinkness, I assumed it was perhaps some GLBT phone company (a few years ago there was a GLBT co-op/finance company type thing around, and if they’re going to advertise for that sort of thing Smith Street’s a good place).
But no. I was wrong
It’s a mobile provider aimed at women, an off-shoot of Crazy John’s as they found they weren’t capturing the female market. But read the article, see if you find it as disturbing as I do . . . Read the rest of this entry »
