While I was in Lismore – where it was mostly hot and humid for most of the time – I began to sleep each night with the electric fan on.

In some ways I felt slightly guilty – I thought it was a bit of an extravagance – though I did enjoy the soft, gentle breeze, and I’m sure it helped me sleep better than I would otherwise.

Despite my “urbane exterior” there are quite a few “hippy” aspects of my world outlook which, no doubt, comes from my upbringing. I believe in using recycled clothing and furniture. I do my best to keep my “carbon footprint” as small as possible (let’s not talk about international travel, shall we?). And I guess in part, this comes from being raised in a reasonably “poor” family where you had to think twice about how you spent your money, and in part, from being raised in Northern NSW with an “general environmental awareness” in the air.

So, for me, using a fan overnight comes with a degree of “guilt”. And don’t get me started on the air-conditioning unit in my apartment, which I generally use only a few times each year, and generally only to cool down the apartment, at which point I turn it off.

One of the first things I did, however, on arriving back in Sydney after Christmas was buy a new electric fan. My one consolation to “eco guilt” was to ensure it had a timer so I could feel comfortable that I wouldn’t be wasting precious resources and generally messing up the environment. It’s a great little fan with a maximum timer of two-hours. So every night before bed I put on the fan with the two hour timer, thinking it would be enough to allow me to get off to sleep and that would be the end of it. Generally speaking, however, I wake within seconds of the timer running out, and immediately start the process all over again. It’s a bad habit, eh?

The reason I mention this is that it was another warm day in Sydney. I didn’t wear shorts and thongs to work, as I mentioned I might yesterday, but I did wear reasonably light clothing. It was a another busy, yet quite focussed day at work which was all about preparing programming for Cyclone Yasi. While I spent most of the day anticipating I wouldn’t have time to head off to the pub tonight to meet with my mates, I “found time” and enjoyed a few drinks with the gang.

Back home, and I’ve got the fan going again, with late night temperatures up in the late 20s.