Friday 22 July 2011

The Heat Wave Toll in Greenland


When Greenland suffers a heat wave the mercury shoots up slightly to 10 degrees Centigrade. You wake up, you look out your window, the surf is thawing. It’s the hot topic on the radio. ‘Wrap up less, Nuuk (the capital of Greenland), it’s going to be a heat wave,' the DJs coo, cranking up the cliched Martha and the Vandellas (click to play, below).



You pull on your shorts, your shades, call the boss, croak down the line that you think you’re coming down with something, won’t be able to make it in. Off down the beach. The promise of sun, sand, sex and walruses. (CLICK ON 'Read more' LINK, BELOW)

But it’s no different in Greenland to other parts of the world (see http://www.tinybangtheories.com/2011/04/5-day-you-do-math.html for further reading on getting your 5 fruit and veg a day in Greenland; http://www.tinybangtheories.com/2011/05/damp-sleeve-becomes-damp-squib.html for further reading on clothes horse faux pas in Greenland) where you have to try and cover for your absence the next day at the office.
‘Looks like somebody pulled a sickie’, jibes one of your workmates. ‘Look at the tan.’
There you are trying to keep a low profile boasting the blackened appendages you associate with frostbite; a lighter touch to your touch-typing given you've lost three of your fingers.
‘I don’t believe he was sick, do you, Deirdre?’ says another colleague to her mate in the kitchen. ‘Did you see his nose?’
‘No’, says the mate.
‘Point I’m trying to make.’

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