What has happened to us?

Grandad1943 your post has made me chuckle!!!

Hydration is important all year round, so for every glass of vino, I have a glass of water at least twice as large!!!

Seems like some of us will find just about anything to complain about, even the most ridiculous Who are you complaining about, Goodmama?
I assumed Bridgeit’s OP was written tongue in cheek

Yes Janeainsworth it was?

Bridgeit

I’m starting to wonder if this isn’t some kind of Jedi mind trick.

Goodmama...clearly I don't have one, as I see no trick, just a thread!

It's just common sense , all that advice about the weather . I live in a place where it gets up into the 40's every summer but nobody dies from it. You take sensible precautions, drink a lot, rest in the middle of the day etc.

It used to be "Phew what a scorcher!" Now, I am laughing just as much at a headline telling me the temperatures have "Soard to 34 degrees!"

Soared?

The TUC state employees should be sent home if the temperature reaches 27ºC and 30º is supposedly dangerous.

Blimey, do they really think life comes to a sticky, sweaty halt in countries which (like NZ) regularly work hard through this and far higher temperatures?

I live in the melanoma capital of the world. Anything that encourages people to be responsible when out in hot sun seems good to me.

I suspect that one of the problems with the UK is that it rarely – at least, up until now – experiences extreme temperatures, whether very hot in summer or freezing cold in winter. Both can be hugely damaging in very different ways.

People who live in places where winters are invariably bitter and well below freezing have houses, shops, offices and clothes designed to deal with it and systems in place to clear ice and snow so transport is not disrupted. People who live in places where summer temperatures are high have similar, but opposite plans in place.

Sometimes it is good to be reminded.
We were in London during a heatwave about 20 years ago.
My mum fainted.
This is a woman who has lived in very hot countries all over the world without any problems.
Don’t think the young need to be reminded to drink water though. They don’t seem to be able to move without a bottle of water.

Last summer DH and I were with our family, attending an outsides school event in California. Most of the seating was in the hot sun. Our family had hats, long sleeves, sunglasses, suncream and water. I was surprised to see that many families had none of these - they were visibly turning red. (I'm also shocked at the amount of adults (in UK & USA) who don't think to put sunglasses on their children. I note that adults frequently wear them, while pushing round toddlers who have no protection for their young & vulnerable eyes.) And in the UK every summer, it seems thst there's always at least one tragic death from people swimming unwisely in rivers or lakes. In my view, if the State reminding people of sensible precautions prevents just one death, or serious injury, then it makes sense!

Wonder how many bulletins about how to stay cool and survive are issued in places like the Middle East. I do know that a central part of Dubai has water spraying from the top of a tower block. As it falls it turns into a mist with the heat and basically cools the air by the time it reaches ground level and has evaporated completely. Folk walking about don't even know it's happening. In the UK folk seem to lose all sense of sun awareness as soon as it appears, stripping off, drinking alcohol in gardens nearly as long as the sun is out, applying suncream once a day. Global warming will soon sort out the problem of over population in this fair land.

Urmstongran - you’re very gloomy. Just let us enjoy the good weather while we can. I think we know how to take care of ourselves. It seems to me it’s the young people who are most reckless - and was ever this.

We're getting advice because it's unusual weather, not because it's hotter than other places. Most Brits don't understand why holiday places close up in the middle of the day, a part of foreign culture based on repetition of hot weather.

So keep the children hydrated, and please buy a homeless person a bottle of water.

Good fun reading all this, because I felt that the OP was just making a little bit of fun; these days we are constantly being told how to act. 'Drink plenty, wear a hat, stay in the cool' all really common sense, but we are becoming more and more of a nanny state, where if anything goes wrong you can always blame someone else, or even sue !
What I really hate when the sun shines is the men who seem to think it is o.k. to strip to the waist, never mind the pot belly, or the hair, and there are some who also think it is o.k. to have a cigarette hanging from one corner of their mouths. Oh dear, I have just described my neightbour

Was it Coco Chanel or Wallis Simpson who said "There's no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes."?
More importantly, given the proclivity of young people for hurling themselves into rivers and lakes without a thought, but at considerable danger - sometimes fatal - to themselves, isn't it time
that the government sanctioned FREE SWIMMING during heatwaves?
This would be financed from central coffers.

I saw the "student buys car and blames someone else" story too.

It actually made me quite angry.

The thought of an adult buying (or leasing, in this case) an item which she clearly cannot afford then having the gall to try to blame the lender beggars belief.

I've been in a few countries where they mist the air around shopping centres. In Dubai they created a ski slope. apparently everything stops in Dubai when it reaches 50c by law. Don't think we have much to complain about.

Last time I visited my son in Sydney the temperature reached 43C one day. Even the air-con was struggling, so we all de-camped to the local shopping mall for the afternoon. Blissfully cool.
In contrast, I was laughing at my Peruvian SIL this morning. They also live in Australia, where it is now their 'winter.' When Facetime-ing he was muffled up, in the house, in a sweater, fleece jacket and a large woolly hat. The temperature was 15C, and he was 'freezing!'

Maybe it's time for some fun style 'public information' ads like the ones we use to get, Charlie the cat or Petunia and her hubby (can't remember his name). I still remember the cartoon one and word for word where the young girl is daydreaming about Dave, fairy godmother pops up and pow! then because he can't swim she gets Mike and off they go for a swim, moral of the tale is Learn to swim young man, learn to swim.

I don't mind the reminders. I know there are many people, not stupid people, who just forget. I really do think it's better to risk annoying a few than to not remind people and perhaps someone gets ill whom you could have saved.

It isn't always the same story either! learned something new on my local TV news.
A man who works in the local TV department and had suffered skin cancer was talking to people, children in particular, in the park and asking them if they have heard of:

"Slip! Slop! Slap!

You Slip on lightweight clothing to cover your skin.
You Slop on the sun cream.
You Slap a hat on your head!

I liked that! A good way for children to remember.

Justme67. How I agree! Also being naked isn't going to keep them cool!

I'm dreading my neighbours starting their extremely smelly bonfire sacrificial ceremony bbq. They do it as near to my patio doors as they are able. First there is the throat rasping odour of petrol which makes me retch, then the heavy smoke belches across, acrid and dirty. As this dies down, the bitter smell of burning takes over and next, vilest of all, the revolting smell of burning flesh . All accompanied by wild shrieks of laughter. Later the laughter turns to loud shouting and they argue and she starts to scream. I have never had bad neighbours before. There's a first time for everything though!

Oh GreenGran78. That's a gem! - "The temperature was 15C, and he was 'freezing!''

I spent 5 years in the tropics where I was very careful not to get sunburnt, until the day I fell asleep, flat on my face, on the beach. Couldn't wear a bra for a week. Many years later my sister spotted a black spot on the back of my neck and urged me to get it looked at. Yes, it was a melanoma but was caught early, thanks to her experience as a GP in NZ. I wondered if that day on the beach set it off.
Heat exhaustion, heat stroke and sunstroke are stages on the same continuum. I think I was suffering from heat stroke after a walk out to the reef at low tide. When I found myself uttering gibberish, I was just sufficiently self-aware to grab a bottle of water and go to bed. I need hardly say that I protected my children when they were young and they have extended these precautions to their own kids. I wish everyone was equally aware of the risks.

I was at the train station yesterday I saw a mother with two small children and a baby all three kids so very badly burned one had great blisters . I then turned to see a middle-aged man with no shirt as red and burned as a BBQ lobster.

Yes common sense for me, maybe but Sun burn causes skin cancer so I say if the media is the only way to get message over then it must be done.

Also I have a neighbour with dementia I have remind her everyday how to dress /act for the weather so I think health reminders are important for those that need educating/reminding.

I am keeping my fingers crossed we don’t get the heatwave we got last year, I felt a prisoner in my own home, not being able to go out because of that suppressive heat. If I did go out it was very early in the morning which was still extremely hot.
Yesterday (Saturday) it was far too hot here in the SE again, but thankfully it is better today.