creativity on holiday

Ah summer... I wish that I could show pictures of a lovely holiday somewhere or at least describe some interesting outings.  Really, there's not much going on apart from a bit of moderate New Year sorting and tidying (very short-lived) and some catching up with friends.  There is something about this time of year that makes everything slow down.  It is possibly the heat and with a forecast of 43 degrees C tomorrow (that's 109 F for any readers in the USA) I should say definitely the heat.  I have long had a theory that intellectual/creative activity is harder in a warm climate.  I lived in Scotland for over 5 years and I was very productive - did a Masters and a PhD and worked part-time for an orchestra.  Since moving back to Australia things have definitely slowed down but there were contributing factors... a full-time lecturing job, then babies.  But even so, I do find it very difficult to get motivated after a run of hot days and nights.  Clearly so do a lot of other people so I wont feel too bad. This Saturday's AGE (Melbourne's broadsheet newspaper) was really terrible. I know it's summer, there's nothing happening in the world (apparently) but the writing was pitiful.  Front page about nothing.  Features about nothing.  Opinion pieces about nothing by people with nothing to say.  Which I can understand, given that we're all in summer-creativity-shut-down-mode (apparently) but why bother filling the paper with drivel about kittens and the Y-gen? Oh well, hopefully it will pass.  Meanwhile, I'll just sit it out, under the ceiling fan with a cold drink and then re-engage my brain in about a week when the kids are back at creche and hopefully the temperature will stay under 35.