I don’t do well with heat. I can get sunburned in 10 minutes outside on a cloudy day. I think 20ºC is hot enough, thanks very much. I am spectacularly not designed for climate change-era British summers.
It was on something like the seventh successive day of 30ºC London heat that my sanity finally broke. Days of poor sleep meant I was getting no work done and could barely think. Instead, I was just Googling with increasing desperation where I might be able to find somewhere less hot – or even, in what felt like an impossible dream, somewhere cold.
In desperation, I checked my diary, and I had nothing in the next week I couldn’t cancel or do remotely. What had been idle escapism became a real plan: I would escape the heatwave, on my own, and find somewhere to work remotely for the next week. It just had to be cold: at the very warmest, it should be the kind of weather that merits wearing a light jacket.
Sadly, I kept coming up blank. Most of Europe was at least as hot as London. Northern England was slightly cooler than London, but it was still well into the 20ºC plus range. The Scottish Highlands or islands looked a bit cooler, but even a solo trip there in July would easily cost me £1,000 or more. Why was it proving so difficult to find somewhere cold in July?
