(no subject)

[allana]

I should really stop reading the BBC "Have your say" discussions in this weather. The thread about our current heatwave is really raising my blood pressure.

If I read one more foreigner (or indeed an ex-pat) criticising the UK for using inferior materials, poor planning or just generally being useless, then I shall scream.

This summer is the hottest summer since Britain started keeping temperature records. Our infrastructure whether it be roads, railway tracks, glass-sided buildings isn't designed for high temperatures. We simply haven't had to deal with them before. So, for Americans and Australians to smugly sit there and say "clearly your roads are of inferior quality if they're melting. Can't the UK do anything right?" (or whatever) ... it's bloody infuriating, that's what it is. Not to mention that our houses are designed to keep heat in, to reduce our heating bills. Many houses have Pilkington K glass which reflects heat back in, FFS!!

If we're going to have temperatures in excess of 35C during the summer from now on then we will adapt. This could be a one off--last summer got up to about 30C, according to my LJ whinging at the time--or it could be the face of the future. We won't know for a few years, I should imagine. So, we'll change our roads gradually, replace rail track, work out green solutions to keep our houses coolish in the summer and warm in the winter.

But for now? We're bloody entitled to complain.

Comments

[bella-cheval.livejournal.com]

You may complain all you want, Ang. Y'all haven't had to deal with this kind of mad weather till now, so how in the fuck are people going to build for it if they don't know how? Sounds like how the people in the South get snarky at us folks in the North when we talk about how hot and humid it is up here.

People who're sniping at you folks for not being used to this weather need an anal reaming with a rusty hydraulic jack.

[glam-ang.livejournal.com]

People just need to think more. I'm seeing an awful lot of people comparing oranges and apples--you can't compare the way parts of America or Australia cope with hot weather with the UK whose natural climate (up until now, perhaps) is temperate.

Clearly thinking is beyond some people.

[screwthedaisies.livejournal.com]

If it's any comfort, this American remembers the tar on the roads getting soft and melty in southeastern New Hampshire a few times when she was growing up.

[glam-ang.livejournal.com]

I'm sure everyone's tar has gone melty (or concrete cracked) during abnormal weather. It's just that a lot of people choose not to remember it.

[screwthedaisies.livejournal.com]

I thought it was fun. But then, I was a kid.

(Gosh, I can't think of the last time I was sitting on tar, or touched it with my hands. I guess the sucky thing about growing up is how much less in touch you are with some things, like asphalt and dirt and bits of wood....)

[glam-ang.livejournal.com]

We used to poke melty tar with twigs.

I think getting older brings with it a natural avoidance of sitting on tar/grass/anything with bugs etc. We avoid things that might be fun based on a quick calculation of how much hassle it could potentially be. I'm pretty sure that I'll find myself rolling down hills in a few years, so I should get used to ants in my hair again :P

[screwthedaisies.livejournal.com]

I don't mind the bugs and such. It's just that there's a notable lack of dirt, twigs and tar in close proximity to my laptop and Internet connection. ;)