"We used to swim in the river at this time of year" a friend laments. It's true that the unheated, outdoor public pools have been open for almost three weeks, but I doubt that they've had many visitors. As a Northerner, I am tempted by the icy rewards of cold swim but I know that this is not what most Viennese have in mind when they think of the Freibäder.

From the other side of the Polar Jet Stream, my sister, Ray, writes that the UK has been dry and wam. It's so dry that the earth on the farm has cracked into irregular, tessellating shapes.

Earlier in May, when visiting family in England I read sections of my mum's childhood diary. The diary had been left out to cheer-up my Gran who has dementia. Each entry opens with a single line about the weather. On this day in 1971, Hampshire was the "same as yesterday", which was "a bit windier". Two days prior, it had been "very sunny and warm", my mum's 12-year-old self wrote.