Cool….

Who’d have thought we’d feel cool when it was 25°? Currently basking in the ‘chill’ of a 10 degree temperature drop and feeling grateful for it!

Yesterday was very warm again and, as I stepped out of the house, it felt like an oven had been switched on and was blasting me. That didn’t change all day and I was pleased to scuttle indoors to try and keep cool.

It was William’s end-of-term farewell show yesterday morning and I had been invited to watch. I had wondered whether they would go ahead given the heat, but they did, and it wasn’t too bad – although there were one or two red faces among the children after they had performed!

The show was so good. So exciting to see the children all come into the hall, their eyes anxiously searching out their Mums, Dads, Grandmas, Grandpas and siblings, then their faces beaming as they found them. William was no exception and our hearts soared as he entered the hall grinning from ear to ear. What a cutie.

Here he is offering a shy little wave to us, having sung the final song for which they sang their hearts out going for ‘Gooooooold…….!’ and receiving a gold medal for all their efforts. It was lovely.

Afterwards we went back to Michael and Danielle’s where we cooled down with an ice lolly and a rest on the sofa. We had a little play but it was fairly lacklustre on all the adults’ behalf. The heat overnight had done Michael and Danielle in, having had to tend the children for half the night – and I am sure I was just feeling my age……. or was it the heat?

A propos of that…..Susie Dent’s Word of the Morning today? It is ‘forwallowed’ (15th century): exhausted from tossing and turning all night. Hmmmm….. I quite like that one! We were definitely forwallowed yesterday – and again today……

On the way home from Michael and Danielle’s I called in to the Co-op for a few groceries and understood why people might want to spend longer than normal in there. It was definitely cool……

After lunch I decided to rest some more…… inspecting the backs of my eyelids for a change. John, meanwhile, was shifting furniture. We had taken delivery of Harriet’s father’s desk a while ago but hadn’t put it in situ. John rectified that and shuffled his desk and the new-to-him desk around to settle the space. His former desk is now in pieces awaiting a new home……

When I woke up, I did a little bit of painting on the window frames in the dining room. Primer, on some bare wood, which hardly took any time at all, but I did spot some knots in the wood which I hadn’t dealt with, so it’s back to the drawing board on those…… plenty of time, I tell myself, plenty of time……

Meanwhile, although John had spent some time watching TV in the afternoon, he had been very busy in the morning mixing concrete and finalising the security post in front of the garage door. Unfortunately, this picture is a ‘before’ one in which none of the dressing concrete had been mixed and laid, but you get the gist……

We were up quite early this morning, making the journey over to Heartlands Hospital for John’s regular treatment of immunoglobulin. We had both had a rotten night’s sleep one way and another, so John enjoyed an all-morning snooze while he had his treatment and hoped that the rest would work wonders on the dodgy hip he now finds himself with. He can hardly walk – it’s a bit stop, go, stop, go, stop……I blame the furniture shifting yesterday……

At home I did a few chores and ran a few errands before it was time to go back and collect the ol’ man. “I’m thinking of going into Leamington this afternoon,” I said, as we drove home, “I want to look at some dining tables. Do you want to come with me?” John thought about it for a nano-second and came back with a firm ‘no’. “You have a look and then report back,” he replied. Okay. Probably best.

So that’s what I did this afternoon, before calling on Paul and Harriet on the way home to see how they were. Paul seems to be well-recovered from Covid, and he confirmed that it had been a mild dose this time. I did my usual clucking and told him he still needed to take it easy. Do you think he’ll listen to my wise words?

John spent the afternoon in the garage, sat in the car seat, tinkering with the Lotus again. It’s such a labour of love – but frustrating at the same time as he searches and researches parts to fit the defunct, and often very fiddly, pieces on the car. It ain’t easy!

And then this evening was a lovely Quiz Night. Albeit we were tired and perhaps not on top form, but it was just lovely to see everyone again. Everyone else was on top form though, because we achieved a creditable 81% score this week. Not too shabby, eh?

Take care everyone – now that this particular heatwave is over perhaps we can enjoy some time out in our gardens. God bless.