IT'S HOT

I'M trapped: outside it is almost 37 degrees, the humidity is at 48% and forecast to reach 71% by 11pm; inside the so-called "whisper quiet" air conditioner I bought from a woman called Miriam on Sunday night is anything but that -- but it does its job extremely well. I have rarely felt such heat, not even in those gatkant van die aarde villages where I grew up. This feels like Durban humidity, but it is much, much hotter. Everything about this city conspires to trap the heat between the buildings, made worse by the hot air from the subways escaping onto the streets, and the hot air blasting from hundreds of air conditioners on the street-side of the brownstones. The fire department opened the hydrant a couple of metres from our house earlier; cars coming up the street stop in the spray for as long as they can, and the construction workers walk up from the corner, where they are building a condominium, to dip their heads in the water. I live for tomorrow, when the temperature will drop to about 29 degrees.

The neighbouring ladies put their chairs underneath the trees on the pavement,
no doubt for a closer look at the cavorting construction worker