And it takes it out of you’

the tarmac in the car park and keep traffic off it for as long as possible then it is practical.

The boys have to wear long sleeve hi vis tops, with hard hats and glasses, so we allow them to go short sleeves.

You’ve got to help everybody out on days like this. I do bring ice creams for everybody. Yesterday I had to buy 32 ice creams.

By the time I got back from the shop to the site they were melting a bit. But you’ve got to keep everyone happy haven’t you.

Sid Rathore, chef, The Purple Poppadom, Cowbridge Road East, Cardiff:

The kitchen is obviously the hottest place in the restaurant and in the kitchen we have the tandoor, hot plates, the ovens, so if it’s 30C outside, I’d say it’s 40C in the kitchen.

In the morning we do a lot of the batch cooking in readiness for the night, so say we have 20 legs of lamb to cook we’ll do that in the morning when it’s less hot.

We see how many bookings we have and according to that we make a decision on how much to cook in advance of the service in the evening.

In the kitchen we would wear chef’s uniforms, but in this heat we are given T-shirts to wear.

We also drink plenty of water and there is cold juice available during service time, as there is not much time to take a break in the evening.

People have this mindset that Indian food is spicy, so I think sometimes there is the belief that you can’t eat Indian food during the hot weather, but we are busy despite the weather so that is good news.

I started out as a chef and have been doing this for 18 years, so to be honest I’m used to the heat.

Members of Cardiff council’s refuse collection team:

Michael Usher (loader): “It’s hot demanding work but made easier thanks to residents offering cold drinks and ice lollies, which really helps.”

Robert Smith (driver): “The heat does slow us down and takes a lot out of you, we just try to pace ourselves and take on plenty of fluids.”

Paul Burford (driver): “It’s the guys picking the waste up that really suffer in the heat, especially the new guys who are not used the demands of the job.”