So what do you want to do for dinner tonight?
Excuse me?
Oh. Oh, my head.
Oh, OK. Hey, guys, welcome back
to the Girl Gone London Channel. If you're new here, my name's Kalyn.
. I'm an American who's lived in the UK
for almost 10 years, and today it is very hot outside.
So I am decked out in my sunglasses and my swimsuit for this video on funny or
strange things that British people do or say in the heat.
Now, coming from Florida,
I definitely have a different way of dealing with the heat.
A lot of people I meet in the UK,
completely different climates, completely different infrastructure,
completely different ways of dealing with the heat.
This video is tongue in cheek, no harm intended.
It's all in good fun.
And also, I do a lot of these things as a classy Brit now, too.
So I just thought, given the fact that it is feeling pretty scorching hot today,
I would take advantage and go ahead and whip out the camera in my paddling
pool coming later to do this fun little video.
OK, so the first thing I want to talk
about is actually something that you all taught me as my YouTube community.
So as I said, I have a paddling pool out
back and I have always known it in the UK to be called a paddling pool.
And it just never made sense to me because
paddling in the US is like you need to be fully submerged in water,
like paddling with your arms, which is not possible in a pool like my paddling pool.
However, you all pointed out that the word
paddling in the UK is used more like we use the word weighting in the US,
meaning simply like getting your ankles wet and walking around in the water,
in which case it makes so much more sense why it's called a paddling pool.
So maybe another word Americans might use would be something like a wading pool.
But like I said,
this is one of those words that I have lived here for almost ten years,
still did not understand that paddling in the UK meant what I think of as wading.
So you learn something new every day.
Thank you all for pointing that out.
Hey, do you think you could get that spreadsheet done by Friday, mate?
It's going to be sunny on Friday, so no, but it's due into the big boss by then.
Nope.
So I'm not going to make it to that really important event you have at the weekend.
The sun's out.
You mean my wedding? Yeah.
Not going to make itOK.
But why the sun is out.
OK, onto the strange or funny things
the British people do in the heat or when the sun comes out,
the first one is basically ditching everything on the schedule.
As soon as the sun comes out,
it is like the bat signal for everybody to drop everything.
I don't care if you're in an office.
I don't care if you like signing important paperwork.
Everyone just like drops what they're doing.
I mean, on a day like this when it's
really, really, really hot, people kind of tend to be a bit like
sluggish and maybe you're not doing stuff because it is so hot.
But on a typical kind of nice sunny
weather hot day, you will see people packing the parks, packing the beaches.
When I was in London, my mom came to visit one time and it was
May like late May, and the sun had come out for the first
time in months, basically, and everybody was out in the parks.
And my mom, seeing all these people was like, oh, what event is happening?
You know, there must be something going on.
And I was like, that's literally because the sun came out.
Everybody dropped everything they were
doing at work, left to go, flock to the parks and hang out.
So it is pretty socially acceptable here
to ditch a lot of stuff to go and take advantage of the sun or of the heat.
So I think we should probably have people over on the Sunday,
because it's not supposed to be like a scorching hot as Monday,
but Monday is supposed to be the hottest day of the year.
Yeah.
Which is probably going to be uncomfortable for our guests.
So we should probably do it.
We'll do it Monday, but it's going to be 32 degrees Celsius.
Exactly.
Why can't we do it on the other day when
it's going to be a more comfortable twenty six degrees with some clouds in the sky?
It's not going to be hot.
It must soak up every degree of warmth possible.
The next thing on my list, again, is kind of a strange thing to me as
a Floridian, because on the hottest days of the year, we tend to stay inside.
Now, staying inside in Florida is very different from staying inside in the UK as
we'll get to air conditioning and a little bit.
But in general, the idea of like picking the absolute hottest day or the hottest
part of the day to sit out in the sun feels like such a British thing.
I, like my husband will say, you know, we'll try and plan something and he'll
purposely look for like the absolute hottest day.
And I'm like, but that's not actually going to be like that.
Nice.
We're all just going to be like sweltering.
But there's just something about being
British that I feel makes you kind of just feel like you need to take advantage
of the hottest part of the day, the hottest day of the year.
Like you need to be out there enjoying it,
even if you are just like just sweating and sweating outside.
It's just part of the summer experience here.
Well, there goes our summer one day of summer, summer in England.
See you all next year because summer is apparently over.
Oh, it's kind of chilly. Not exactly.
Summer weather in July, is it? Oh, my word.
It's hot out there. Can't wait for some cooler weather.
OK, so the third thing British people tend to do in the heat is
complain about how hot it is, but only after having complained
previously about how not hot it was or how it didn't feel like summer.
So it's kind of just part of this whole
tradition of moaning about things as a British person.
And it's part of the culture.
And it just means it gives you something to talk about at all times.
So everybody's saying, oh, the summer hasn't come yet.
Oh, we only have one day of summer
and then the summer comes sweltering heat and it's too hot for everybody.
And everybody's just wishing for the cold
weather to come back, which I think is funny and really ties
into the fact that you can always be talking about the weather in the U.K.
because you can almost always wish for different weather.
You almost will never hear people say like, oh, like perfect weather today.
Like, I hope it would last like this forever.
It's always too cold, too hot, then cold for too long, been hot for too long.
And there's always something to talk about.
Man, it's hot in here, Britain really isn't built for the heat,
just open a window, but it's also hot outside my window,
just open a window, but there's no breeze.
What is opening a window going to do if
you open the window at exactly six thirty four a.m. and then run all the way
to the back of the house to close all the curtains.
Bollywood one millimeter open just for some.
Just do that and then go ahead to the top window and you're going to go ahead
and like do a karate roll into opening that window and then downstairs later
on for hours and three minutes later, then you just go back downstairs and then
you close that window and then you open it again and then you're fine.
You just you open a window. It's all fine.
OK, well, that window is open.
The flies are having a field day in the kitchen and I'm still hot.
Just open a window, OK?
The fourth thing British people do or say in the heat, and this is something that I
am going to have to say, I do not understand still is this idea
that you just open a window to solve all the problems.
So that is the response to everything will just open the window.
We just open the windows.
We don't need air conditioning because we have windows that we can open.
And I do understand that that works on a day with like a cool breeze.
But on a day like today, there's pretty much no breeze here.
It is sweltering hot and opening a window is just just not really doing it for me.
But this is always people's response.
When people from abroad come to the UK
and have suggestions about maybe ways that people could cool down or maybe
talking about air conditioning or things like that, the response is always, always,
always open a window, closed some curtains, and those probably do help.
And we do those in my house as well.
But it's just funny that that is like
the catch all solution to it being hot is just open a window.
Man, we need some air conditioning,
we don't need air conditioning, it doesn't get hot enough.
I'm fine, but it's hot enough right now.
It only gets hot enough like one day
of the summer as fine air conditioning is for babies.
I'm fine.
You just told me you didn't sleep a single socket last night and woke up in a pool
of your own sweat mixed with melted ice packs.
It's fine.
Fine.
I'm just saying air conditioning could help with that.
No, I don't need it.
I'm fine.
But you can't argue that it'd be more convenient conveniences for the week.
Also, if we had air conditioning, there'd be nothing we could complain about.
Good point.
And the next thing that British people do in the heat similar to the Windows
situation is suffering through on purpose without air conditioning.
Now, I completely understand.
Well, I don't necessarily understand, but I do understand
to a point why air conditioning is not standard and British homes fine.
It's a different climate.
But you can purchase air conditioners
that are kind of portable air conditioners.
I've got one right here.
You wouldn't think that an American
in the UK would not have an air conditioner, would you?
That would be silly.
And so, you know, if you can afford it again, that's a different story.
But I feel like there are plenty of people here who can afford an air conditioner or
some sort of air conditioning unit, but they choose to suffer through just
because for no real reason, because admitting that they want
need slashed wood finds an air conditioner enjoyable.
It's kind of like giving up your British card.
It's like they're part of being British,
seems to be suffering just so you can complain about the suffering.
And I've talked about this with my husband and we laugh about it.
And again, no harm intended.
This is a funny pointing things out video.
Americans do plenty of strange things,
but this is one of those strange things that I find about British people where I'm
like, it would be so much more convenient and nice if you had an air conditioner.
And I know you can afford it and I know
that part of you wants one, but you're just not willing to admit it
because you're too British and everything's fine.
Hey, what do you want to do for dinner tonight, barbecue?
Duh. What do you want to do for dinner tonight?
Barbecue.
What do you wanna do for dinner tonight?
I know what's the third day of sun,
but I feel like we should give the barbecue a little bit of a rest.
No barbecue.
I'm guessing you want to barbecue for dinner tonight?
No, I don't want to have a barbecue tonight by ourselves.
I want to have a barbecue tonight and invite all of my friends over.
OK, the next thing the British people do in the heat or in the sun is barbecue.
The answer to everything.
These barbecue you in the summer are going to be invited to barbecues.
That is just what happens.
And I love that about the UK, where it's just like as soon as the sun
comes out, we start smelling the barbecues in the neighborhood and it is an excuse
to fire up the coals, get people around and they don't get sick of it.
It's like we're going to barbecue every single time.
It's sunny from now until, well,
maybe next week, depending on how long it's sunny in the UK.
But barbecue, barbecue, barbecue, barbecue is always the answer.
If you go to the grocery store or supermarket on a hot weekend day and you
go and you don't go early enough, they're going to be sold out of so much.
We went the other day when it was really hot on like a Saturday afternoon.
There were no rolls, there was no corn.
They almost didn't even have any burgers left.
Everybody just barbecue barbeque.
Barbecue is the answer to everything.
And a British summer.
Did you know Marjorie's going to Teneriffe next month?
Isn't that great?
Oh, that's nice.
Who's Margaret?
Marjorie from number eight down the road.
Oh, didn't realize you spoke to Marjorie just yesterday.
You were telling me that you went three
miles out of your way to avoid seeing her in her driveway on your way home.
But no, Marjorie, she's the best.
What
stands out OK?
The next thing the British people do
in the heat is I feel like everybody just gets a little bit more friendly and open
and starts like saying, how do people and shouting.
So, you know, in different parts of the U.K.,
there are different cultures around this type of openness and friendliness.
So all specifically talk about in the southeast of England,
where it is definitely a little bit more of a closed off kind of culture.
The sun comes out and people act like they've been friends for years.
People are like waving hello as they're walking their dogs.
All these things that don't happen when it's like gray or overcast or miserable.
In the winter, the sun comes out and instantly people are
smiling, people are laughing, people are talking to random strangers.
And it's just like a really nice atmosphere in the U.K. when it's sunny.
Why does everyone have their shirts off? It's hot.
Why are they sunbathing in the front yard for all the neighbors to see?
It's hot.
Why is he eating an ice cream cone at eight a.m. on a commuter train?
It's hot.
OK, the next thing that happens in the UK when it's sunny is I feel like there's all
of a sudden like a lack of rules, anything goes.
So you have your shirt off walking into the local co-op.
Sure. Go ahead.
It's hot outside. The neighbor is literally sunbathing
in your front yard, even though there's a backyard garden.
Fine, whatever.
No one's going to make a big deal because it's sunny and we don't care.
So again, and this goes along with it, like ditching everything when it's sunny,
the rules of society and life just fade away when it's hot.
Do what you want.
We're all just going to kind of try and stay cool and let you get on with it.
And that's another funny part of Britain in the summer.
You should really put some SPF 50 on the sun can really damage your skin.
Hello, this is England.
It's going to rain in 10 minutes.
Anyway, the forecast is sun all day.
Are you sure you don't want some?
Do you really think I'm going to put
something in between this UV starved skin and those glorious rays?
I think not to get burned.
No, I'm not.
Oh,
OK. I
think I got away with it.
The last thing I have on my list has to do with sunburns because let's face it,
British people are known worldwide for being the ones who get sunburn,
particularly when they go on vacation or holiday.
But also, I feel like even in the UK, this has started to happen.
This has started to happen to me pretty often in Florida.
I used to always lathering up like sunscreen all the time.
Doesn't matter here.
I'm kind of like maybe there's like a cloud overhead.
It's the U.K. How long can this last?
And I don't put sunscreen on to the same
extent that I used to, which is not good, but has ended up with me.
I can't even it's been so hot.
I'm losing my words.
It has it ends up with me being sunburned
like a tomato, just like all the Brits out there with, you know,
because I didn't take precautions and actually it was sunnier than I thought.
So I just feel like there is something
quintessentially British summer about a sunburn.
OK, so that brings me to the end
of my video on funny things I've noticed about British people in the heat.
I'm literally about to go in the pool for real and enjoy it.
So I hope everybody stays cool wherever you are in the world.
And I'll see you guys next time.