Answers to this week’s questions at The Friday Five @ Livejournal

1. Do you have any big plans for the summer/winter (depending upon your hemisphere)?

Summer, and nope! I just focus is on surviving it.

2. Have you ever been or are you a fan of camping?

I LOVED camping as a child. Through my ages about 0-11 my family camped as much as we could during the summers – pretty much all weekends, and all/most of the summer vacation weeks (4) Mom and Dad had. We used my Dad’s Union’s camping area which was open to only Union members, and our tent remained up there all through the summer. Our friends would visit us there, and my two best friends would come and stay for a couple of days or a week a several times during the summer. My friends and I would have a little orange tent we’d sleep in, while Mom and Dad slept in the big tent. It was fun! The ocean was about 3-4 minutes walk away, the camping area was surrounded by woods and small hills. We’d go hiking – both just us kids and have adventures in the woods about 15 minutes to 30 minutes away in the woods, as well as all adults and kids going hiking together for whole day trips.

I haven’t been camping as an adult. I’m sure my memories of it are overly romanticized.

3. Did you ever go to a sleep-away camp in the summer when you were a kid?

No! That would’ve been my nightmare! I hated school, so many noisy kids and just crowds in general… summers were my rest from the noise and discomfort of having too many noisy kids and crowds around me all day five days a week. I needed that solitude of having only my actual friends to deal with during the summer to withstand the school months.

4. What is going to be the high point of the fast-approaching season?

Food, absolutely! New potatos, strawberries, rhubarb, ice cream, cool summer drinks… I eat so much ice cream and drink so many cool drinks, because they taste great but also to help keep coo, refreshedl and hydrated.

5. What is your favorite way to beat the heat/ be warm and toasty?

Aircon is my favorite – I love grocery shopping in the summer because food shops are the that are cool/cold in the summer.

I’d love to have aircon at home but aircon is not a thing in homes here or in most buildings. Indeed, hospitals have been having problems during summers because they don’t have cooling aircon. We didn’t used to get hot weather for long (days rather than weeks) until about 15 years ago, so most homes have to invest in standing/table fans or those pump things you mount on a wall and that can be used both for heating and cooling if you want cooling in the summer. But in the future I’m sure aircon will be included in more and more buildings in the building stage or when renovating, considering the increasingly hot and long summers.

I just have to rely running my standing fan all the time, taking cool showers as many times a day as necessary and not toweling off, and also just wetting a towel in cold water and wiping all my limbs down with that to cool off. It doesn’t beat the heat, but makes it survivable even though just barely IME.

Answers to today’s questions at thefridayfive @ DW

1. Where are you right now?

At home on the couch. I just finished breakfast.

2. Where would you like to be right now?

Honestly? I’m good right here! In less than an hour I’ll leave to have my hair cut short and neat again by hair stylist school’s students, and I’ve been looking forward to it for two weeks! This is the first time I’m letting a student cut my hair short, and I’m a little nervous and a lot excited! I’ve had my hair dyed by them before and that went great both times. I’ve heard good things about all the services the students in the school offer, so I thought I’d try them even though I want to cut my hair really short again! If they mess it up – it’s only hair and it’ll grow back!

3. Where have you always wanted to visit (but have not yet)?

USA: The Grand Canyon, Yellowstone. Egypt: Cairo, the pyramids and a cruise on the Nile, France: Versailles and Paris. Angkor Wat in Cambodia…

4. What is the most peaceful place you’ve ever visited?

I can only think of my Mom and her partner’s summer place when they still had it… it was always nice to be there because it was away from the city. Honestly, my Mom’s garden is really good – they live in a small terraced house with only 15 apartments, and it’s really quiet there most of the time (no kids and all inhabitants are middle aged or older), because the house is situated so that one side is a tiny forest, one side is a field, and two sides are the backs of town houses with gardens. It’s like living in the country when you sit in the garden, even though there are two large shopping centers only 5 minutes drive away, and the town center is about 10 minutes drive away. But none of the sounds of traffic reach the terraced house, and my Mom and her partner’s apartment is the very last one, so they’re have it the most quiet of all. I love sitting in their garden in summer and just chatting; that’s the most peaceful surroundings I ever experience. I myself live in an apartment complex with 4 houses and about 70 apartments by a highly trafficed road; there’s always kids or other noise outside or just traffic so it’s nice to get away sometimes 😀 

5. Where do you want to visit in your dreams tonight?

Honestly, I don’t want to visit anywhere. Whenever I see dreams that means I slept badly, and sleep badly or not at all too much as it is. So I want a good, proper sleep.