Light, water & heat- Moscow style

I need to rant and get this off my chest! For the past four or five weeks its been very light here in Moscow. I noticed it starts to gets light at about 3.30 to 4.00 in the morning and remains light till 11.00 at night or even later. If its been a hot day, its not pleasant in our Moscow flat. We have no air conditioning and the sun comes round from midday and shines into our bedroom, living room and kitchen, heating the rooms up to almost sauna conditions. The buildings bricks suck in all the heat like a giant sponge, retaining the heat. You can touch the bricks at 8.00 at night and they are still warm. As a result, you slowly cook and have the light in your eyes unable to sleep. Now to add salt to the wound, the hot water will go off from the 17th of June. We will cook in the summer and cook in the winter as the heating is communal and cannot be turned off or down.

Every year in Moscow and perhaps all of Russia, "they" the "powers that be", turn off the hot water, I have been told its because they clean out the pipes. Why don't they just replace the pipes? We have a small electric water heater, so we should get a warm trickle from that, however when its hot I won't want a hot shower.

Dear reader, If you rent a flat here make sure the flat has a separate water heater boiler and air conditioning if the sun hits your flat in the afternoon.