on a day of general gloom and cafard-ish muses came a dollop of sunshine - the ancestral demense is now air-conditioned! conditioned air has always been a quest for that part of mankind that inhabits sudoriferous climes, but we never really felt the need, even in the sandy vastness of dobuy. however, a recent downgrading of the pater's health parameters back in the native necessitated this installation and we are feeling quite chuffed!
as always this triggered a train of thought leading us to speculate on conditioned air processes over the centuries. the aztecs and other tribes closer to the big bang than current specimens went au naturel with just the jollies hidden. further away from the big bang the japanese - that race of aggressive portability - came out with the foldable hand-held fan [the akomeogi] which like all good japanese things made its way round the planet. victorian england was quite a fan of fans as evidenced by several dozen images of queen vic clutching them.
in the native, where the heat, to the gora-sahib, was akin to the heat of the big bang, the fan was at once a symbol of royalty, a languid show of grace and a tool to cool. the pankha came out of british bengal and soon was a status symbol.
here in the sands we condition air from the loo to the blue! our tourist pitch to lure unsuspecting friends and family is: 'ac to come to dobuy and ac to stay'. paradoxically, in our humble dacha we have the con on at full tilt and use a thick quilt to keep warm [the duality of the gemini...!]
now that the guv is about to become a cooler dude [was always a cool one!] we raise a glass of chablis and wish him a rapid recovery! santé!
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