AIBU to hate this hot weather

Love this warm weather, even if it does make me feel hot and sweaty some of the time. Just seeing the blue skies and the sun makes everyone look happier, even if they don't feel happier. We are the lucky ones who don't have to worry about working in it. Just relax and enjoy it while we can. The Europeans have definitely got it right when it comes to the hot weather. Up early, do the chores, relax and eat midday, siesta time in afternoon, then out in the evening when it's cooling down again. And remember, there's always tomorrow to get things done!

I hate it too - with a passion. Hardly any sleep last night as it was so muggy and airless, and I'm fed up with feeling hot and sweaty in spite of three cool showers a day. I love seeing a blue sky and the sunshine, but within reason - this is just TOOO much!

I'm on a farm in northeast US and today our heat index is 38C. It's not whinging...it's a real health hazard! Yesterday we were in protest march for 2 hours and quite a few older folks like me were suffering by the end. I am one of those who can't stand anything over 15C! (I can readily deal with our -35C winters though.)
We make a homemade electrolytic drink and keep it chilled in fridge. Also make popsicles and ice cubes with it.
Years ago when we were dealing with 30 - 80 assorted horses, cows, sheep, chickens, ducks and little boys I couldn't get through the morning without salt tablets and lots of water. But electrolyte drink is better now.
People can have their blood checked for electrolytic imbalances, so going to a doc may not be a frivolous or whinging idea!
Only way to cope here is to get farm and garden chores done between 4 and 8 in morning or just before sunset. (In between, I am a book-reading vegetable.)
No big livestock anymore, so large barn fan is now in the living room. Husband stuck to his chair watching World Cup. Chickens roosting in the evergreens. Cats look like they're melting on the porch. Collie staring at me with incriminating eyes because I won't go out and play frisbee with him.
Ice cream is always grand!

Yes, I agree Ginny.
Let’s enjoy it while we can.It won’t be long before we all start moaning about how cold it is.

Luckily, I am retired, but I wouldn’t relish having to go to work whilst it’s so hot. And I do feel sorry for others who have to.
Personally, I’m enjoying the warmth.

Witzend, we used to have salt tablets in Kuwait but as I have raised blood pressure these days I watch my salt intake but love sea salt in small doses. Not sure all the medical advice is spot on. I was advised by a junior nurse to stop eating dairy because of raised cholesterol, resulting in my breaking two bones unnecessarily.

Having been taken to Trinidad and Kuwait by my parents in the sixties I have had to resort to taking off the summer clothes I got out this morning and adding a light summer vest and long PJ bottom. As promised, it is humid this afternoon, promising a good afternoon nap and a heavy night's sleep later on. I am almost 70 and have trouble feeling heat less than 35 degrees. I do have sympathy for my lady friends who suffer. If my OH puts the fan tonight I will gladly sleep in the lounge on the sofa. I am most definitely unusual.

Slutty gran, I totally agree with you. And am taking all the advice about drinking and ice packs. I think I miffed a very good friend the other day because she wanted to take a picnic and sit in the sun and I wanted to stay indoors in the air conditioned shops.
My DH has only just stopped wearing his vest.

I dislike extremes of temperature - a constant 20 degrees would suit me very nicely.
I place a hot water bottle filled with cold water in the freezer, and take that to bed with me, wrapped in a towel of course. I also use little ice packs to cool me in the day, otherwise I’m just a sweaty, sticky, sleepless mess!
If the heat makes you feel dizzy and nauseous, it’s probably dehydration. Research has shown that most of us in the UK are perpetually dehydrated, and when the heat strikes, it hits us very badly. A little extra salt and lots more to drink might help a great deal - it’s worth a try, and there’s nothing to lose!

Sazzl I don't deal well with the heat so I am very sympathetic to anyone made ill by it. Have you tried the ice packs which you can place on your wrists and move about you to help cool down? I have used a hot water bottle loaded with ice cubes which works pretty well. Cold compresses with peppermint oil will cool the skin too but do ensure you keep the oil away from your eyes. (If you do get it in your eyes do not use water but do use milk or yoghurt.) Try to rearrange your day if you can and get up at the crack of dawn to do things and rest for the rest of the hot part of the day.

Sorry if the next part makes you want to scream but MawBroon asked the question so I have to confess that apparently we do have air con! We had a new heating system put into our retirement bungalow when we moved in and for various reasons, mainly expense, we went with an air to air system with no radiators. We laughed about it at the time because it was a cooling system which is operated backwards in the the winter for heating. We hadn't given it a thought because we never thought we would have occasion to use it for cooling and it took us a few days of hot weather to even cotton on the fact. How crackers is that?!?! Anyway we thought we would try it and would use it if it wasn't too expensive to run. It is bliss! I am so thankful for it and the best of it is that we only need it when the sun is shining on the back of the house which just happens to be where the pv panels are so it runs on the electricity we generate and doesn't cost us a bean. Praise the Lord!

I will now tiptoe away!

sazzl I am in complete agreement with you. I like the sun but it is getting ridiculous now. I am feeling drained by the heat and don't move far from the fan. I hate hearing the weather forecasters going about it being another lovely day when what they really mean is that it's going to be unbearably hot. The only good thing is that it's cooler at night, so allowing for a lovely sleep. However, I'm another who is looking forward to Autumn. September can be a lovely month, warm but not too warm.

Did you see the tennis player at Eastbourne putting an ice pack on her face and neck? Good idea. You can also buy a chiller slab type thing to put inside your pillow. It was recommended to me when I had flushes from chemo. I think it's a Chillow. Here's an example: www.amazon.co.uk/JML-Chillmax-Natural-Cooling-Maximum/dp/B014R8VA0Y/ref=pd_sbs_201_2?psc=1&pf_rd_t=40701&pd_rd_i=B014R8VA0Y&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_p=5179604776422437276&_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_wg=Si7TW&pf_rd_r=DN634GAFCFDR7CY3FC0Q&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pd_rd_w=EbKnw&tag=gransnetforum-21&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&refRID=DN634GAFCFDR7CY3FC0Q&pd_rd_r=a3b9e3f7-7d34-11e8-b81b-7b74f69b368a

I don't like this weather either, but it's nice to see sun. We are lucky in Oxfordshire, we don't seem to have too much humidity, it's cool at night and early mornings. I don't sit in the sun as I burn.

I suffer in this heat too - it's the humidity rather than the temp. I tolerated it more when I was young and wondered at my mother lying down, drawing curtains etc Wish I could talk to her now to agree more with her on this and other things!!
Also I now have Hashimoto's and always feel the heat way more than others. Vitam8n D is import and so I try to dose up in the morning before a restorative shower then stay in. Walk at dusk.

Before I came to Scotland I lived in Central Africa. The only thing that worked for me during extreme heat was a salt tablet with a full glass of water twice a day.
Here I've only done this about twice in the last few years.
I also find putting a wet tea towel around my neck helps.

It's not so much the heat, it's the humidity.
It is very humid today

Nannan2
Wow, thanks so much for your kind and understanding words to those of us who suffer dreadfully in the heat! As for your "stop moaning", well, words fail me!
I've suffered from heat exhaustion/heatstroke almost every summer since I was twelve, so there's nothing I don't know about trying to keep cool in this weather.
The weather lately has been a lot hotter in some parts of the country than others too, Devon has been, on average, eight degrees cooler every day than where I live, Northumberland is nine degrees cooler today than here!
I live literally on the prom, (address is *****Promenade), there are two pavements and a road between the beach and our house, but even with sea breezes, it's dreadfully hot!
I have to take salt tablets, drink inordinate amounts of water and fruit juice, stay in the coolest place possible, and basically do nothing.
People who like the heat will never understand those of us who hate it, and we'll never understand those of you who suffer with cold weather, personally I love deepest winter!
I've left our house just once in the last week, to drive in my air conditioned car to an air conditioned store outside Chester to collect a present ordered for DH's birthday. I was fine until I walked back out of the store, and felt as though I were walking into a furnace. I had to sit with the engine running and the air con on full for five minutes until the dizziness subsided enough for me to be able to drive safely!
I will not be leaving the house again until this dreadful heatwave ends, I go as far as the decking, where I sit in the shade of a large awning until 12-00, when the sun appears around the house.

I'm not able to deal with heat the way I once was :-(. As many here have said I think some of it is age/health related.

But if you feel ill anyway it is miserable to have to deal with that and the heat too.

Thankfully our bedroom and sitting room stay cool and it's a real blessing.

Also a friend told me about wrapping frozen cool blocks in tea towels/pillow and using them as reverse hot water bottles. Not a perfect solution but they have helped me through some very uncomfortable hot nights and hot flushes.

Yes Saggi this person still irons. Why? Because I feel better and the mirror certainly decrees I look better in an ironed item. I also love the sensation of crisp laundered sheets. Horses for courses eh?

The problem with the UK is its humidity which can make it so exhausting. We are, after all, an island.!

Nannan2, I think that you are being quite unkind to people who are completely destabilised by this weather, who are taking all the relevant precautions but their bodies just don't cope well. If you are double jointed, it suggests a problem with collagen which makes up a huge part of the body including the circulatory system. The hot weather causes already lax veins to become compromised and your blood pressure drops accordingly leaving you feeling terrible. Many of these people have joint problems and the cold weather causes extreme pain which is difficult for them to reduce because the medication doesn't give them relief. Even local anaesthetics don't numb the pain. I think they might have every reason to want a good moan every now and then because the life they lead is full of pain, nausea, passing out and much more. What was once thought of as a rare condition now affects a huge percentage of people who may not even have had a diagnosis but only know that weather like this completely disables them.

The hot weather affects a lot of people, my wife being just one. So we keep a fan running in the coolest room for her and my son who finds the heat oppressive. Standing under cool (not cold) showers also helps.

Yet as soon as the rains come we will regret the loss of summer. We do not get enough sunshine.

Sorry about the typos--I blame them on the heat!

I loathe hot weather, always have, so this year I've bought myself a swing seat and installed it in a deeply shaded part of the garden where I go with a book and a cool drink and laze away the really hot hours. I remember, shen I was a student, I worked in a frozen food factory and my job was way up in the roof area where the heat was horrendous. Those of us up there were made to drink salted orange drinks to stop us passing uot and falling over the barriers onto the production lines!

I love the sunny weather providing I can sit in the shade and relax but I found myself almost moved to tears at reading the recent accounts from charities saying there are homeless people absolutely desperate for water to drink but who can’t get any. This had not occurred to me- will try to offer a bottle of water if I see anyone.

homefarm, I’m glad someone else feels like that! Staying indoors with the fan on is just what I’m doing. I still feel awful.

I’m bemused by those of you who enjoy it. I honestly can’t see one good reason for that.

Also, it’s boring. Every day the same for ages. No wonder the best landscape painters come from places with interesting weather and varied skies.

I don't think she's moaning...just saying how she feels. Good on her.