it's hot, man!

Oh my word, it is hot. Very, very hot. 43.6 degrees (110.5 Fahrenheit), to be exact. I've been in the air conditioned office all day, where my coworkers' offices were so cold, they had to put on sweaters. (My office is far enough from the blowers to be a bit warmer). But now I'm catching the train home and it is intense. Generally, the trains that run to Melbourne in the afternoons are older trains, and the air conditioning on them is fairly appalling. I was sweating head to toe by the time I got home yesterday. Today, though, they've done us a huge favor and sent one of the newer trains. Ah, air conditioning! We'd all probably be dead without you!

When it gets this hot, the rails expand and become dangerous, so trains have to run much slower than usual.

As it is summer, the schools are on summer break for the moment, but when it gets this hot during term-time, they will close schools. Can you imagine that? Instead of snow days, you get heat days? It's funny, I never really expected Australia to struggle to cope with heat. I thought they'd be so used to it. But on the coasts, it only rarely gets this hot, and their cities are built with the same materials as any other city in the world, so I don't know why I assumed that! Did I think they would have developed better technologies for train tracks than the rest of the world? Probably. I mean, they developed polymer money! Why not special, heat-immune rails?

Here is my coffee and ice cream treat (an affogato)