Recently, scorching heatwaves have swept across various parts of Europe, with temperatures hitting record highs one after another. The United Kingdom, which has always been perceived as a cold country, has not been spared either. After breaking the highest temperature record for May, it went on to break the June high-temperature record for three consecutive days. In the UK, where air conditioning is not commonly installed, many Hongkongers who have moved there have been left "questioning their existence" due to the heat.
Recently, a Hong Kong woman who moved to the UK posted on social media to complain bitterly, saying that the local temperature had reached 34 degrees Celsius, and the lack of indoor air conditioning made the perceived temperature soar to nearly 37 degrees. She not only revealed that the heat had driven her to switch into rant mode right after waking up, but also that her beloved pet cat at home had become so agitated by the heat that it went on a hunger strike. In the end, she could only resort to the most primitive method—"ice cubes plus a fan"—to cool down the cat, leaving her in a desperate and flustered state.
The woman who moved to the UK posted on Threads, recounting her experience under the UK's sweltering weather. She noted that at 34 degrees Celsius in the UK, a person's perceived temperature can reach as high as 37 degrees. She frankly said that the high temperature caused her to lose emotional control, describing herself as "switching into rant mode right after waking up, unbearably grouchy."
Besides tormenting people, the high heat also made her pet at home suffer greatly. She revealed that her cat was also too hot to stay calm and even refused to eat its favorite treats. She helplessly said, "Sigh, apartments in the UK do not allow the installation of outdoor air-conditioning units, and the plug-in portable ones have no place to store."
With no other option, she had to go online to do some research and follow the "primitive heat-relief method" used by other netizens, using "ice cubes plus an electric fan" to bring down the temperature. In the end, she used wet wipes to wipe down the cat's entire body, placed a frozen large ice pack in front of the cat, and turned on the fan to blow at full blast, barely managing to cool the cat down. This move also led her to mock herself, saying that now she is "less important than the cat," and joked, "Ah, now I don't have the fan anymore, but it's okay—she is more important, she can't handle the heat."
The post immediately sparked heated discussions among netizens, with many fellow expatriates deeply relating to her experience. They left comments one after another, sharing the miserable conditions of their own pets, "My British Shorthair loses mobility and lies on the ceramic tiles when it's over 31 degrees," "So hot that it's going crazy, no AC and we'll die," "My place is fixed at 23 degrees (with AC on), otherwise both my cat and I would die," "My place has had AC on 24 hours a day since April 10—this is money that cannot be saved, or else the kids will suffer heat exhaustion."
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