London Heat

[gordonzola]

This is the second straight time I've been to London in the midst of a heat wave. As I was leaving, the papers were panicking about the London Marathon participants. In the typically restrained style of the press there, they seemed to be preparing for body counts and faux-campaigns of accountability if anyone got heat stroke.

I know my experience is not normal. The first time I went to London, jactitation and I had flown there in March after being snowed in in upstate New York and Brooklyn because of the weather ("Superstorm '93!"). When we arrived, we spent a few days in a squat with coin-fed heaters that didn't really work and not enough hot water for a full bath. It was so cold that not only did I sleep in all my clothes but the condensation from my breath froze the pillow so that every time I shifted in my shivery half-sleep I had to crack through a thin layer of ice.

I don't think I actually got warm in that entire visit even while consuming tea constantly and warming my hands while cooking toast in the over-the-oven broiler.

My last two visits though: a very different London. In 2003 we seriously had to hide in the middle of the day. That we could only find pubs to take refuge in was just a happy coincidence. I did not pack for that kind of weather this one of the first things I think about when reminiscing about that trip is sweat.

I tried to write about the differences in racism between the UK and the US that I noticed on that trip, and was never able to successfully, but the heat provoked one of the notable differences. As we sat waiting for the train one day, a white woman in the racially diverse gang of people I was hanging out with saw a Black goth. The goth woman was in full goth gear despite the weather: at least three layers of black frilly clothing. The white woman said, "Oh my god, look at her, she must stink." The Americans, white and Black, bristled. Black people "stinking" is not a causal throwaway line, it's a phrase laden with historic racial implication. The Englanders, white and Black, discussed the matter in the way you discuss things while waiting for public transit to show up. Different.

Of course while I was in London this time, Tony Blair blamed the recent wave of knifings on "black culture" (meaning hip hop culture") so go figure. I mean, god knows, England never had any youth cultures associated in the press with violence before this, right?

Back to the weather, on this trip I actually brought and wore shorts for a large part of the trip. Even though it was hot I was pretty much the only adult who did. I felt very Californian. But hey, that's one of the reasons to go on vacation: it reveals things you take for granted in your daily life.

Comments

[slit.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid my German cousins made fun of my Americanized dad's habit of wearing "short pants." And I thought well at least he doesn't wear socks with sandals like YOUR dads, but I kept that to myself.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

hee hee

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

The only time I've been to London, it was about 90F and 90% humidity.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

London is awful in the heat. I really wished it was colder.

[prof-southbay.livejournal.com]

Welcome back!

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

thanks. you're back in SM now, right?

[prof-southbay.livejournal.com]

Yes. I'll be back in the Bay Area for a week starting 5/6. And then as needed every few weeks until August.

[winsey.livejournal.com]

Someone did die of heat exhaustion after the marathon. At the risk of sounding insensitive, I have a two pronged question about that: wouldn't you know if you were pushing yourself that hard and is finishing a marathon that important?