under another sun

The hottest day ever in England, with the temperature reaching 40.3º only in WW2 have we had more outbreaks of fire in London. This heat really horrid. In Greece you can plop in the sea or retreat to your air conditioned room to cool down, not pad about on carpets and sit on warm sofas, even my office chair I found too hot. Having no urgent work, I did what had to be done from my phone on the gold sofa. Sam, meanwhile, finding novel ways to keep cool including putting a hot water bottle in the freezer.  Lorraine of course, off to work. I sat at my desk for a while, and thought of her. She did so well. I spoke to Mum and Mas and they seemed to be doing fine. I was worried about them as the heat up where they are was worse than down here on the coast.   After an indolent day, at tea time I had a shower and changed into my lightning strike teeshirt, entered the room where Lorraine was wrapping presents for her staff, and my lightning tracker app on my phone signalled a nearby str...

I felt too hot to do much today, so stayed at home and did not walk. The hottest day of the year, and extremely hot for UK. Up early, and was editing my story sat outside eating a bowl of porridge at 7:30. Ended up doing a bit of a rewrite today, and so spent hours on it. Had a chat with Mum with their having returned from a car journey to Watford, Mason becoming pooped and immobile at one point, which was stressful. Beth dividing her time between getting everything sorted for her move, and basking outside. A hot Lorraine home tonight, and after a light dinner we sat outside. She needs a break. Meanwhile the rest of this benighted country going mad. Bournemouth had to declare a major incident as hundreds of thousands of people descended, resulting in traffic chaos, fistfights and a Lemming like crowding on the beach. There is general unrest at the moment. On Hove lawns groups of scuffling teenagers had to be cleared by Police this week, and there have been flare ups in the cities. Thin...

A bubble of Saharan heat that had lain over Europe causing the hottest recorded temperatures in France drifted across the channel today, losing some of its ferocity, but still pushing temperatures into the mid 30s. Lorraine and I sensibly decided it was not a day for excessive exertions, so we went shopping and then found shade in our garden. Good to see Lorraine relaxing on her lounger reading and listened to meditation tapes. In the evening we drove to Hove, to pick up some dieting paraphernalia from Betty, and then onto Steyning to see Dawn. A gorgeous summer evening there, we had salads and seabass and I drank gin and tonic made from Dawn's pomegranate and rosewater gin. Lovely. Realised I was feeling a bit braindead and lethargic, and think I may have been overdoing the diet having lost over 4 kilos this week. Then, as cooler breezes sprang up, we had a walk in the woods on the side of the hill behind her house. A lovely walk in the woods, magical despite lots of trees fel...

Up and working early. Unnaturally hot blue day again, with our weather streaming up from the equator. Worked on the horror project somewhat, also a day of friends getting in touch, messages from Adele and Yvonne, Shaila, Chris Williams, and emailing Trace. After I went to the gym in the afternoon, I bumped into Neil Noon in Sainsbury's and had a half an hour chat about writing. He told me about a podcast that specialises in horror which was useful. Neil had a play on the BBC radio a couple of years ago, which I heard. He referred to his producer several times, which was impressive. After the gym, home in the sunshine to some more writing, then cooking, and chatting to Lorraine. We watched an episode of Endeavour, the TV series which is prequel to Morse, and is set in the sixties. I have a soft spot for this programme, which is completely targeted at people of my age and above which is rather worrying. In this episode, a complex story of murder, a girl's school and the histo...

A busy day. Off to the gym first thing today and it was hotter inside the gym than outside. Had to stop lumbering on the cross trainer after 20 minutes as I was getting really warm. Moved on to weights as it was cooler among these onanistic strainers, then rowing which was cooler as it was closer to the ground. Home, changed and then off to London. Working on the train, and despite there being lots of free spaces a man sat opposite me and later produced a laptop and was asking me to make room for him, despite me using only half the space. Bizarre, almost as if he were trying to pick a fight. I think the heatwave is making people a bit crazy. A lunchtime business meeting with First Matie, who gave me a handover of her work before zooming off to the forest to be with her mother tomorrow for her postponed hip operation (after Mrs Nasty the cat had scratched the operation site). News that Kate's mother now had an insect bite, caused tremors throughout the family but the operation wil...