Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Euterpe13 wrote:I found 40ºC + in Tunisia ( dry heat ) less tiring than 38ºC + 90% humidity ( Singapore) - the humidity makes you feel that you are breathing water.... exhausting.

Quite agree about humidity. I was a VSO in Northern Ghana, sub-Sahara very, very dry, humidity very low. You should have seen the gold leaf electroscopes!!! No problems teaching electrostatics there! The Ghanaians from the South hated it though, they thought it far too hot!

I have spent more time in the humid tropics, with and without air conditioning. Perhaps some of the most uncomfortable times have been in Islamabad in the heat, the saying there was that we went from fans to fires in a month. The short spring was fantastic - I have never seen sweet peas or roses to compare with the ones we had there.

In the '70s seniors could miss Sunday breakfast (I hardly ever did because it was always one of the better breakfasts) and Sunday tea (which I usually missed because it was invariably terrible). Perhaps we went to tea more often as the term wore on and the money for Vesta curries etc. began to run out.....

Apart from those meals, everything else was compulsory and lateness was indeed punished (drills and/or detentions, I think).

Back to the weather.......!

Totally agree re. dry heat and humidity. A holiday in Malawi, for example, didn't really present any problems, but business trips to Asia, particularly Taiwan and Hong Kong, could be a nightmare due to the ridiculous humidity. Japan could become very sticky as well, particularly as we usually had to be suited and booted for meetings there.

DavebytheSea wrote:Just not allowed, JR! You had to fall in for breakfast, dinner and tea outside the House. The dormitories and lav ends had to be cleared 5 minutes earlier and the bogs downstairs vacated when the cry came to fall in.

Punishments for being late were swift and automatic. Repetition of offences - even trivial ones - would almost certainly result in a beating. However you had to be singularly stupid not to learn the lessons of punctuality at a very early age. It is a habit I have always maintained and, even now, I can never understand why some people are habitually late.

As I recall Dave, it was exactly the same in the 60's - AND woe-betide any pupil not correctly and FULLY dressed !

DBTS AND JR Take your undressed talk elsewhere! We are talking about the weather here - a most typical and well known fact that an Englishman alsways talks about!

It has finally got to 20.5C and for the 1st time in over a week I actually slept from about 4.45am untiul 7am when woken by daughter - she has exams today and wanted Mummy to get up and KNOW!! I do I've been testing her on psychology for the past week!

However the sun is up and bright again and the thermometer is rising...although the skies are not clear - so it is muggy.

high hummidity is the worst in my mind as you can't cool down as you can't sweat. At least with dry heat you can have a shower and then stand in front of a fan to dry off!! (yes I did - I was too hot to climb into bed!)

Florida at Christmas and in August - Xmas it was their coldest on record 1989 - -5! and snow. August 1990 - very hot with lots of tropical rain!

......... Sorry to dissapoint you Jude, but in my day, we'd STILL have to wear a housey coat on lunch parade. I think we changed into 'flannels' after lunch.

When I was in the police, we weren't allowed to remove tunics in hot weather unless decreed by the Chief Constable. This would normally be when the temperature started to reach around 85 degrees. Nowadays, it seems policemen, if you ever see one, are dressed in shirt-sleeve order most of the year !

Ditto as a nurse - we still had to wear our heavy capes when moving from ward to a n other place! At CH We had blazers which had to be worn regardless until lessons had finished - and although they were not the length of the housey, they were still damn hot!

Jude wrote:high hummidity is the worst in my mind as you can't cool down as you can't sweat. At least with dry heat you can have a shower and then stand in front of a fan to dry off!!

You can't stand under the shower if the pipe to the shower is just one inch below ground and it is 40C in the non-existent shade!!! I had to have buckets of water (also useful for the times when there was no water in the pipes) As for standing in front of a fan, we only had electricity between dusk and 10pm at night, and then not every night.

I had a HARD life as a VSO - why did I enjoy it so much?

Quite a worthy post to promote me to the echelons of Grecian I think!!

Jude wrote:DBTS AND JR Take your undressed talk elsewhere!

That's a bit hard, Jude! We were talking about dressing up in hot weather - not dressing down! No mention of undressing anywhere - at least until you mentioned it!

WEll how do you guys cool down then?????????????????

Jude wrote:WEll how do you guys cool down then?????????????????

There are some secrets that cannot be revealed in open forum, Jude.

DavebytheSea wrote:

Eruresto wrote:And you know what the worst thing is? I keep forgetting not to wear full housey! Help!

Is it true, Josh, that a certain gentleman of the Peele went to breakfast this morning in full Housey and then changed into his pyjamas and went back to bed?

Don't know about that but a certain gentleman of Col B did go to breakfast in full pyjamas with full housey over it. He wasn't even cold, just forgetful

1) Re. weather. Half of the windows in our house have been painted shut by some previous moron.

2) Re. uniform. In my Grecian's year, I regularly went to breakfast (and even some lessons before break) with my skirt and jacket over PJs. Gave me extra time in bed!

cj wrote: In my Grecian's year, I regularly went to breakfast (and even some lessons before break) with my skirt and jacket over PJs. Gave me extra time in bed!

My pyjama bottoms would have showed under your skirt (in a manner of speaking)

DavebytheSea wrote:

cj wrote: In my Grecian's year, I regularly went to breakfast (and even some lessons before break) with my skirt and jacket over PJs. Gave me extra time in bed!

My pyjama bottoms would have showed under your skirt (in a manner of speaking)

You have to roll the legs right up over your knees.