In the heat of the Night..... and the Day

The weekly newspaper, The Ibiza Sun, has been reporting the weather forecast for the next seven days and each week you may just have well have had single line saying, "Weather, same as last week - Hot"! The temperature has been hovering at 29-30 degrees each day with only minimal relief from about 10pm when there is a hint of cool breeze. However, this heat is made all the more oppressive due to the very high humidity levels that are blamed for almost every problem that may effect a human being from headaches to lethargy.

We have an air conditioning unit that pours out a stream of cold air at a freezing 16 degrees but even that is not enough to spread about the house in general. So with some "Heath Robinson" like ingenuity we have positioned fans that either blast us directly or divert the chilled air around the corners of each room in an attempt to cool the bedroom.... it doesn't work!

So, laying in (or actually laying ON) the bed each night it is not unusual to wake with the feeling that you had just emerged from swimming across the nearby bay from San Vincente. We were talking the other day and the thought that given all the fluids were were losing in this heat how come we were not losing weight given the sauna like conditions? After showering and cooling down we only need to take a few steps and find ourselves drenched in sweat once again.

Night time is of course very uncomfortable but sitting on the terrace which is sunny all day is like sitting in an oven and I can only spend a small time sitting or laying out before feeling the need to seek out a cold drink and some shade... I am not good at just laying and now that I have run out of things to read, broken my catapult, been defeated by the growth of weeds in the extensive garden (fields!!) I have filled in time by doing a bit of packing but even that is draining in the heat of the day.

Ants, there seem to be two species, are also a problem. There are the rather large ones who pretty much leave us alone, preferring instead to form a large column and do their work (what ever that may be). Then there are the tiny little ants which are more of a problem swarming as they do all over the terrace and seemingly immune to the ant poison that I have dusted liberally around. These little devils are easily diverted by taking an over ripe fig from the nearby tree and letting them go an deal with it in their own way. Those ants that are not attracted to his goody still seem to manage to get on to an exposed bit of skin where one recently sank it's fangs (do ants have fangs?) into my upper thigh which in the blink of an eye numbed an area about 6 inches across which was initially quite painful. I have declared war on this insect invaders but fear we will be long gone by the time they have gone to better feeding grounds.

Our "Sentinal Bugs" seem to have departed the house. There were hundreds and we watched several hatchings but suddenly they seem to have flown away. Oh yes, they fly! I wondered if they were being eaten by the many lizards that are here or the Cicadas.