Well, as an Australia, I think I am qualified to talk about this.
I’ve been noticing that a lot of people overseas, are talking about heat waves. Aren’t they just the WORST! I don’t mind Summer, but those heat waves are worse than cold. I can’t write about snow, my state doesn’t get it. Or at least, I’ve never seen it.
I’ve got some advice for you. Mainly, how I “cope” with out putting on an air-conditioner. My mum likes to say that we don’t work full time to not have the heating/air con on. But it’s also considering your bills and your energy use. Which, I’m sure you all know, can end up costing a lot. Then you start thinking “Well I didn’t really need it on then”.
Writing about air conditioning though, DON’T put it on to the point of freezing in your house either. Put it in on so your cool, not freezing. The amount of times my body has nearly collapsed, from going to somewhere freezing in an office building, to outside into a heat wave and my body cannot cope with that well. I don’t know why people do that either, it will make you sick. You’re putting your body into instant extremes.
Here is my list:
- Prepare for a blackout. – Put some those ice blocks you put into picnic baskets, wrapping them up in a tea towel can help you feel cool. Make sure all torches are charged. If you prefer candles, make sure you know where the candles and matches are. Considering purchasing “light candles” the ones where you put batteries in and you can turn them of and off, different colours with a controller.
- If you’re by yourself, close all the curtains/blinds. Anything that lets sun in, cover it up. Generally during the day you can still get enough light into a house to see, you just want to stop a lot of sun coming in.
- Have a cool shower before bed. Again, not freezing, just enough to cool down.
- Sometimes, I will dampen or wet a hand towel and put it on my head. I find that if I’m cool as I fall asleep, I will fall asleep well.
- See how you can put a timer on your air con or fan. It’s the same with the damp towel, if I’m cool as I fall asleep, I will fall asleep. Sometimes I find that just having air moving helps as well.
- If you’re in your house, go nude! If you can only do it when you’re by yourself, go nude then.
- Buy a big dress or also known as a “moo moo” to wear around the house. If you wear it out as well, cool. Just something big and breezy around the house, can make you feel cool. But if you have to answer the door, then you’ve got something to wear.
- Drinking is a bit harder, because people love their coffees and cups of tea. So we forget to drink water. I’ve also started to see that a lot of people don’t “like” water. But we need it. So flavour up your water. There are lot of ways to infuse your water with fruits, and all sorts of things. So no excuse to not drink water!
- Talking about water, make sure you always have at least two bottles of water in the fridge. I don’t care if you infuse with them with something. But if you have a gathering, you will NEED water. Doesn’t matter if you don’t like water, I can guarantee a majority of your guests will drink water. Also though, when you open the fridge, that will remind you to drink water.