Am I hot or not?

Good day to you, summertime reader. We've been hearing about the heatwave in the UK (aka three sunny days and a thunderstorm), but we have to say that we can one-up you there. We've got a few hot days ahead of us here in the Bay Area, with the metaphorical mercury topping out an an eye-popping 39 degrees Centigrade yesterday (or in the local units of Fahrenheits, approximately gorblimeymarypoppins).

But never fear. Working from home in the summer here is actually much more comfortable than my brief experiment working from home in the UK in 2013, because here we have this magic thing called air conditioning. The air conditioning in our house blasts out cold air under my desk, which means, paradoxically, I only have to wear socks on hot days. That's the kind of cognitive dissonance I have a lot of trouble getting my head around, I can tell you.

Anyway, it being hot and having air conditioning is just fine until this happens:

Yes, California doesn't know how to generate or buy enough electricity, and the way that's managed is to ask you, the consumer, to consume less.

Now firstly it's pretty interesting to note that California's overall power demand is actually quite a lot bigger than the UK's, despite the population being smaller. Of course, to be fair, UK energy demand peaks in the winter and here it's in the summer, for obvious reasons, but power consumption per capita is still much higher than the UK. There's an awful lot of greenwashing going on here, despite California having a self-image of being environmentally conscious.

However this does simply underline the point that infrastructure of all kinds is of a lower standard here than the UK. And we're not talking about a bit less good - it's actually a lot less good.

Talking of which, something else I miss from the UK is the humble plug. Now, safety-conscious reader, I don't think I need to tell you that BS1363 is essentially the gold standard for safe domestic electrical supply (and this takes me back to my band's final gig in London in 1994 where I had a strop and refused to play until they'd made the electrics safe... but I digress). I've taken to buying high-quality, hipster grade extension leads here, which have a plug that looks like something out of a 1950s sci-fi b-movie:

Notice, concerned reader, that even on this, which is probably the best quality plug you're going to see this side of the Atlantic, the pins are ridiculously weedy (and this is on a lower voltage and therefore higher current system) and there's no insulation. Well, at least it's earthed, although that's very much the exception rather than the rule for appliances in the US.

And relax. Let's have some balance. There are wonderful things here, things which are absolute gems. One of them is Heath Ceramics. I have a feeling I've mentioned them before, but this is a local ceramics manufacturer, still producing the beautiful, functional designs of the Bauhaus-influenced Edith Heath. Of course, you should have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful, and sometimes, just sometimes, you manage to acquire things that are both. Heath Ceramics tick both boxes:

The picture doesn't do these things justice, but they're so beautiful and useful that I swoon a little bit every time I pick them up.

Anyway, it's still hot. I'm writing this on the porch at 9:30am and it's 25 degrees Centigrade already. Fortunately, today California seems to have found the metaphorical 50p to put in the meter, and we can consume electricity with unbridled abandon. Let's hope the A/C is up to the job!