Western Walkabout: Coping With The Heat
Richard Harris gives good advice on how best to cope with hot weather.
Wherever you live in Australia, you can expect to be hot in summer. Expect to see Santa in a pair of surfie shorts and Mary Christmas in a bikini.
We have to dress for the climate, which means a hat, a cool top, and sun block cream.
Living in the West, the heat starts to come in by late October and by December, the first month of our summer, the heat is settled over the land like a broody bird on her nest.
We get used to the heat. Our blood thins, we adjust our diet to take in more fruit and salads and we learn from experience that booze is not a good idea on very hot days, though some of us are slow to learn this despite experience.
A method I use to cope, which works fine, is to drink plenty of water and rise early to take some early morning exercise. You’ll find that you will be sweating within about 11 minutes of the start of your exercise program. This means that your body’s cooling mechanism is working. And guess what, you will be comfortable for the rest of the day. Your body simply copes, the way it was designed to.
If it’s late in the day, and we’ve caught the tail end of a northern cyclone, the heat can be suffocating. So forget about vigorous exercise. Take a slow, easy walk. Take a cool refreshing drink. Try a berocca or a staminade. And if all else fails, open that bottle of cold champagne. Come on, it’s Christmas, and you can try again tomorrow.
