Their meeting was one of unrestrained joy.

High-factor suncream blocks out the sun's rays.

Not content with the table displays, Daddy covered the sofa with our new ski-ing clothes, our beanies, vorlages, ankle-length tomato coloured pants, Mummy's furry earmuffs, their anoraks and my parka.

Yet why hasn't that city's train system been crippled by heat as ours has been since before even (the unhot) Melbourne Cup Day?