Heat

Last week Melbourne suffered a heat wave. It felt like having a thick wooly blanket covering everything. A temperature of around 38 degrees settled over the city for about a week.

It triggered a number of heat-related memories for me. Mainly memories of holidays I’ve had in Asia and the Pacific although I think any Pacific Island I’ve been on was cooler.

A wonderful part of those days for me was lying in bed with my limbs heavy and the bed supporting them. Pure relaxation. Surprisingly I have slept well and I remember doing so in the past when it has been hot. I have a fan but I haven’t used it at night.

I have been at work during some of the hottest weather. For a couple of days in an old house converted to offices where the cooling was a fan and outside doors left open, in the hope of a passing cool breeze. One of the doors opened to the street and as there was construction going on next door we became part of the noise and dust of redevelopment. I moved to an air conditioned office and left others to cope with this aspect of an over-heated world.

The evenings were wonderful - warm and mellow and only once did it seem too hot to sit outside.

This heat has given me the opportunity to wear a shirt that was once my mothers. It is cut rather like a sports shirt and is made of a sort of aertex fabric. My mother bought it about 15 years ago, liked it but found that where she lived the weather was hardly ever warmer enough to wear it.

She lent it to me when I went to Asia. I have memories of wearing it in Singapore and again on a baking summer’s day in Seoul. It has stayed hidden for the last couple of summers but I discovered it in January and the weather has suited it. When I first put it on a picture comes to me of my mother wearing it as she comes up her drive towards me.

It is strange that I can still wear it. It is tighter than it once was but not too tight. It is surprising that it was ever a size my mother would have worn. I can only suppose that I have forgotten what size she used to be. Now in old age she is tiny and the shirt would float on her.