Mad Dogs and Englishmen...

 ... go out in the midday sun. SING

It's a Noel Coward song, written in 1931, I'm reliably told. That's the only line I know, just because... well, I don't really know why it's stuck with me at all, other than that it comes to mind every time it's hot. Although, there is a verse ending'...out in the midday, out in the midday, out in the midday SUN!' Oh, he could write 'em, old Noel.

I'm not an early-to-bed person, nor do I often see dawn (haha, the very idea!), so it is often enough damn near midday when I surface. Shocking really, but I won't lie. We do get up of a morning... ish... at least, when we're away, to go somewhere, or do something, but on an ordinary day, well, neither of us sees the point. Especially when it's cold outside, or raining! There is, of course, no such 'excuse' when it has been 25 C and over, for days.

So this lovely weather we're having, with the sun belting down from early on... while lovely, has the propensity to make me feel sort of... guilty; for missing it all. I mean, we moan about the rotten weather, then when it turns nice, we moan about that too. Talk about mad dogs!

It's not like the south of Europe here, where the siesta, while being fabulous, often enough annoys the feck out of me, for all the shops being shut, just right when we are out and about. It's a great idea, I love it, but hey, I'm here NOW and want to buy your souvenirs, or a beer! You can't shut NOW, I'll be too tired later! 

It's a bit of a conundrum, really, because it is so sensible. And we tourists are on the beach or marching about in the sweltering heat... as we are here at home at the moment... acting like the idiomatic mad dogs. When we should be having a wee snooze. Then later, we could go on a wee paseo, in the cool of the evening (sometimes even then not cool at all, but at least not burning us) and take the kids to the playground at midnight and fill all the restaurants with prams and babies too. It's sensible!

But no, we're not that... developed. Not yet. Or perhaps, not hot enough for long enough? I've seen it suggested, but I'm thinking that climate change will be a good bit further down the line before the siesta is seriously mooted in northern climes. And of course, even southern places don't all close down now... they've cottoned on. Business goes on, and air-conditioning does, of course, help.

What I find too... I often enough open the door to the nice weather, sure. But then I sit just inside that wide open door, in the shade. My mad-doggedness is tempered by a distinct degree of ennui when no plans are otherwise being forged. I turn the fan on, for that little bit of extra comfort, too. Of course, things get DONE... in little spurts of activity that help me tick off the 'to-do' list. I'll even do a little run on the bike for whatever is needed. It has been known! But the hammock is always a-calling me, and I hold my own little siesta, even if I only rose from my scratcher a mere four hours ago. Generally, I'm in the sun when doing that, so it's a kind of backwards-style siesta. Surely I should be in the shade? Must check that.

Anyway, my long-winded point here is... Noel Coward wasn't entirely wrong there. Not being an Englishman, in either race or gender, he wasn't singing at me specifically, but I do feel spoken to. Because I do still, and regularly, '...go out in the midday sun' and... there is no escaping the ridiculousness of it all... it is mad to do so.

Not sure things will change, whichever country I'm in, at whichever outdoor temperature. But the song will prevail, for sure.