I am melting

Today in London, my weather app showed 35°C, but it felt like 39°C and some. A few weeks ago a friend was moaning that it was too cold and summer never comes, then the second it arrives, he is asking for it to be a little cooler.

Me too, I am no exception. I am, in fact, exhibit A, recovering from the leg injury, leg still elevated, with two fans pointed at me and achieving nothing except moving hot air from one side of the room to the other.

I read a BBC article and it turns out I was fanning the wrong end of myself entirely. A breeze on the face feels glorious but barely affects your actual temperature, since the cooling sensation is drafted by the cooling effect. The smarter move, it turns out, is dunking your hands in cold water, since they carry far more blood flow than your face and are a key part of your body's thermoregulation process, pulling heat out of the body properly rather than just making you feel cooler. Cold showers are also the wrong instinct, since shocking your whole body with cold water makes it clamp down on blood flow to the skin rather than release heat. A lukewarm one does more good than an ice-cold one ever would.

Which would have been useful to know before I settled in for the day, laptop on my lap, because that's where laptops sit when you can't get up easily and sit at the table.

I spent most of the day on calls, which means a t-shirt was non-negotiable. But below coverage of the camera, the only thing standing between me and total surrender was a pair of boxers. With hindsight, a thong or a mankini ensemble would have been the more breathable choice. Professionally risky but thermally sound.

A few other things worth knowing if you're stuck indoors like I was. Sip something warm rather than ice cold. It sounds backwards, but a hot drink does more to trigger your body's actual cooling systems, the sweating and the blood flow to your skin, than a cold one will, just steer clear of tea and coffee since the caffeine works against you. And if you're going to fan yourself, widen your aim. Cooling more of your body rather than just your face helps your sweat evaporate faster, which is the only real cooling mechanism your body has once the temperature climbs this high.

Anyhow, I stayed on every call, the leg's feeling fine, and the hands-in-cold-water trick has worked wonders. The mankini stays hypothetical, for now.