Back in
the early 60s, whenever I stayed at my grandmother’s place she would let me
watch Zig and Zag on the TV.
The were only
two episodes I recall in any detail. One was about how the two clowns helped
repair the King? St Bridge after it developed a crack in it. Naturally it was
hard work and they had a break half way through and each ate a Peter’s Ice
Cream.
In another
episode everyone was complaining about the weather, so Zig and Zag decided they
could do a better job than the weather bureau. Some people rang up because they
wanted to go skiing, and they set the meter to snow. The next call was from
someone who wanted to go to the beach for a swim. I guess the moral to this
story was that we can’t please everybody. [There have been some wholesome
influences in my life.]
My own
personal variation on the theme is that I refuse to be satisfied at all – and that’s
not just about the weather.
The chill,
not the temperature, makes a Melbourne
As a kid
the heat never seemed to bother me because we were always in water. Well, the
sunburn bothered me a bit, but not half so much as it will in ten or 15 years’
time when I’m having cancers burnt or cut off my skin all the time.
Once I hit
my thirties I stopped going outside at all.
Keeping
cool inside during a heatwave was a simple matter of using the bathtub as a
plunge pool every 20 minutes or so. The other trick was to hang wet sheets over
the screen door, which acted as a type of evaporative cooling system.
Okay, so
it’s a bit much for me to wish I could have the temperature steady at 19 C +/-
2 all year round. But seriously, if we can’t please everybody, wouldn’t this be
a good compromise?
Everywhere
round the world, of course. It’s not just about me.
