Friday Mood: It's hot, slow down, enjoy
The sun is telling you to jump in the sea, to have that early skate. The sun knows what it's talking about, listen to it.
As is so predictably British, the media is imploding with news of the heatwave this week. We are just so BAD at dealing with weather in the UK. We can’t cope when it’s cold. We can’t cope when it’s wet. And now, we can’t cope when it’s hot.
I’ve had this conversation with so many people this week, wondering why the rest of Europe can cope with extreme heat, and yet we are so ill equipped. I’m not decrying the nightmare that is trains not working, kids getting sent home from school and parents (mostly mums) having to juggle it all, hospitals struggling with increased demand. I’m not decrying the fact that this is clearly an environmental issue, and that once again, it will be ignored as to there being any urgency to it.
I am decrying our reaction to the day to day heat for the vast majority of us, which should surely be entirely manageable. It’s still cooler than most of the destinations we jet off to every year as brits, and yet when it’s on our own doorstep, we seem incapable to just deal. Parents in my kids school (one with big cool rooms, and outdoors spaces with shade, and they are taking all the necessary actions to keep kids school) are literally pulling their kids. When did we all get so very middle class about these things?
Anyway, I digress.
The point of this week’s article for me is simple. The sun is trying to tell us something. And it’s something that people in hot countries all implicitly know, but it’s something that British people like to ignore.
We need to slow the f**k down
The sun wants us to swim in the sea (multiple times a day if you’re near). The sun wants us to head outside to the skatepark, but to do it early, and at our own pace (I had my indoor lesson this week and I almost melted down a ramp). The sun wants us to actively say no to all of the things that don’t 100% need to get done, and just go with it.
Let’s be real - this hot weather is not going to last - it will be here for a few more days, and then by Sunday it will be back to normal temperatures. We need to take advantage while we can.
We need to wallow in it, and soak it in
I’ve been taking my kids down to the beach after school to head out on paddle boards. I often have to work in the evenings after they are in bed, and the temptation is to rush them off to bedtime, get my own free time in, and make sure the things that ‘need’ to get done, get done.
Well this week I’m saying no to that. I want them to have times like this where they can just lay idly in the water and stare up at the sky, with no agenda. Where we eat out of tupperware on the beach and try to prevent the seagulls from nicking our tea. Where we paddle out into the blue, with no desire to return.
There’s no to do list, no bedtime deadline, no work that matches up to those kinds of memories. The ones that bubble up to an overall feeling of summers together as a family. I want that for them, but importantly, I want that for me.
Put the to do lists down ladies, go star fish in the sea (or a field if you don’t have the sea).
We need to slow down with company
I’ve always noticed how people in European countries with better weather are just so much better at adhoc get togethers (even after they have families, when this capacity seems to break down entirely in the UK). A quick drink in the week is the absolute norm. Mid week dinners with other families. Multiple generations hanging out outside together, meeting their neighbours.
We are so bad at this in the UK. Until it seems, a week like this appears. Suddenly I can almost guarantee I’ll run into friends at the beach. That if I pop something in a group chat, others will turn up. That the mid week frenzie that parents here seem to have (school, clubs, homework, school, clubs, homework) suddenly gets thrown out, and we can just hang.
I’m not entirely sure whey this doesn’t play out across other weeks of the year, but I’m taking this particular heatwave to make sure our evenings are outside, with friends, enjoying every second.
Short and sweet this week, but I hope you manage to turn all of this negative news about the heat on its head, slow down, and just get out there and enjoy it. It’s going to be done in about two days anyway, and then we’ll wonder what on earth we were stressing about. Until next year.
Have a lovely weekend all, we have our Skate, Sauna and Swim event on Sunday at Saltdean Lido in Sussex - still a couple of tickets left if you want to join! Click here for more details.
Caroline x
Board Women Founder