The heat is on.

As the hot weather continues in the UK, the newspapers are full of advice about dealing with it: 

how to keep cool at work – dress light but not as if you were going to the beach. 

how to keep your pets cool – don’t leave your dog in the car while you shop – ditto small children and, presumably, old people. 

how to keep the garden cool – well, more like a warning that insects, ladybirds and such, are more likely to land on you as they regard you as a source of water when they can’t find it on plants – funnily enough a friend of ours in Pontevedra was told that was why his house was being invaded by ants – they were just thirsty!! 

how to keep cool at night – this one advises putting your pillow in the fridge to chill so that you can go to bed with a cool head – if you don’t release all that heat you can’t sleep! 

Goodness me, anyone would think it had never been hot before. But then, for a lot of younger people this is probably the first hot UK summer they have known. 

British and Spanish papers go on about what to eat and drink in the hot weather. One Spanish paper recommends “té con hielo” – iced tea. I can personally vouch for the refreshing qualities of iced green tea. I like the way they do iced tea and coffee here. They bring you your pot of tea or your small black coffee and a cup full of ice cubes. When your tea is brewed you pour it over the ice cubes. Result: an excellent chilled drink! 

Also praised as a refreshing drink is "cerveza con gaseosa" – beer with lemonade, otherwise known as “una clara”. So we’ve been drinking the right stuff. They also, rather surprisingly, recommend Coca Cola; it improves concentration for long journeys apparently. A dose of sugar and caffeine! Gin and tonic wins the prize for the least fattening alcoholic drink but they recommend rum and coke as a refresher. 

And then there’s your style. I saw an advert for some make-up, a kind of rouge or blusher to rub on your cheeks and give you that “I’ve just been out in the sun” look without having to age your skin by actually doing so. Now, I thought the aim was to look golden not red but what do I know? This is “un look distinto” – a different look. 

There’s that use of English again: “un look”. And another one I saw this morning in next to a range of nail polishes was “un must para el verano”. No wonder everyone has a smattering of English. 

Maybe they should offer English language courses with a level known as “un smattering”.