I woke up this morning feeling like that. I step in the cold shower, getting rid of the previous night's sweat & humidity and begin to feel semi-human again. Although, I know that I'm actually kidding myself here because as soon as I step out the shower, I'll feel sticky, sweaty and yucky again.
No, perhaps this time it will be different. Perhaps this time, I'll step out the shower feeling refreshed and that feeling will stay for at least 10 minutes. I slowly step out the shower, holding my breath. Could this be the day the heat finally subsides and I'll feel refreshed? Isn't that what a shower is suppose to do?
I reach for the towel, put it round me, open the bathroom door, so far so good. I walk up the stairs and and head to the bedroom.
Damm, I knew I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up. By the time I've got back to the bedroom I can already feel the suppressive sultry heat clinging to my body. It's hot. It's darn hot. And I haven't even started the commute into work yet.
The 'natural' air conditioning in work was on top form today - I'm beginning to think that this is perhaps indeed hell. I try to find any excuse to be away from my desk, as I have the sheer mis-fortune to have a desk with a window that opens into the open area that is in effect a greenhouse. One can mistake this for Dante's 6 level of hell (Lower Hell: Violence & Fraud) - The City of Dis
"Before you are fields full of distress and torment terrible. Burning tombs are littered about the landscape. Inside these flaming sepulchers suffer the heretics, failing to believe in God and the afterlife, who make themselves audible by doleful sighs. You will join the wicked that lie here, and will be offered no respite. The three infernal Furies stained with blood, with limbs of women and hair of serpents, dwell in this circle of Hell."
What I wouldn't give to be in at least Dante's 3rd level of hell (Upper Hell: the Incontinent) - at least it's nice and cool there!
"In the third circle, you find yourself amidst eternal rain, maledict, cold, and heavy. The gluttons are punished here, lying in the filthy mixture of shadows and of putrid water. Because you consumed in excess, you meet your fate beneath the cold, dirty rain, amidst the other souls that there lay unhappily in the stinking mud. Cerebus, a canine monster cruel and uncouth with his three heads and red eyes, dwells in this level. He growls and tears at the damned with his teeth and claws."
Mind you given those descriptions - they could be describing any workplace! If you are interested, you can actually take Dante's inferno test. http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-test.mv
I did, and found that I'm such a bad, bad person I would be ending up in Dante's 7th level of hell:
"Guarded by the Minotaur, who snarls in fury, and encircled within the river Phlegethon, filled with boiling blood, is the Seventh Level of Hell. The violent, the assasins, the tyrants, and the war-mongers lament their pitiless mischiefs in the river, while centaurs armed with bows and arrows shoot those who try to escape their punishment. The stench here is overpowering. This level is also home to the wood of the suicides- stunted and gnarled trees with twisting branches and poisoned fruit. At the time of final judgement, their bodies will hang from their branches. In those branches the Harpies, foul birdlike creatures with human faces, make their nests. Beyond the wood is scorching sand where those who committed violence against God and nature are showered with flakes of fire that rain down against their naked bodies. Blasphemers and sodomites writhe in pain, their tongues more loosed to lamentation, and out of their eyes gushes forth their woe. Usurers, who followed neither nature nor art, also share company in the Seventh Level."
Hmmm, that's nice to know.... and here's me thinking that I'm not really that bad a person.... obviously Dante disagrees.
Just walking from my desk to the printer and back I can feel the muggy sweat trickling down my back. It's going to be a long, long day today.
As mentioned before I try to spend as little time as possible at my desk, I have wee meetings down in the canteen as that's the only place in the building that the air conditioning actually works! Struggling with the rest of the day, I get an e-mail from Kate asking about beer.
It's hot, I'm tempted, and the walk alone from work to the Cruddy bar is enough to work up a raging thirst in this heat. It's time to down tools and take the long walk - okay I'm using a bit of artistic license here... but you get the picture! - to the Cruddy bar. I then proceed to have;
- 1x pint of grapefruit juice and lemonade.
- 1x sparkling water with one slice of lime
- 1x sparkling water with two slices of lime
- 1x sparkling water with three slices of lime
- 1x fresh orange juice with lemonade
Meanwhile, Kate had a lager and 4 x dry white wines - I could only sit and watch and remember what that was once like! ;-)
After which, we departed our seperate ways. I was lucky enough to catch a no. 24 bus straight up to Tottenham Court Road, switch to a no. 10 bus going to Euston, before jumping on the 476 bus to take me the last part of my journey home.
Here was me thinking, 'Wow', no waiting for buses, I'll be home in a jiffy. I should have learnt by now, not to have such thoughts, I only end up jinxing myself! As soon as the 476 left Euston station and turned back onto Euston road - complete gridlock.
How many times, can they bloody dig up Kings Cross??? Grrrrr.
Several minutes i.e. 15 mins stuck on Euston Road, later the bus finally moved and I was speeding home for the rest of my journey.
Back to my lovely, hot, sticky, humid flat. Back to yet another night of trying to keep cool, with all the windows open, sleeping on top of the covers falling asleep to the radio......
No comments:
Post a Comment