under another sun

Hottest May day in the UK ever, touching 34C in London, though slightly cooler here on the coast. A call for Lorraine from Maureen saying that Patrick had blood in his urine bag and Lorraine had to phone nurses and so on and head round, which she normally does on a Monday. Delores still unwell so did not go round to Pat and Maureen too. We spoke to Mike Sassarini -- to cancel today, but we beat him to the draw, as it was also too hot and difficult for his mum to travel. I felt lethargic in Greek temperatures but with no Ionian to slip into periodically to cool down. Lorraine round at Pat and Maureen. Pat's urine bag returned to normal thankfully -- dehydration can cause these symptoms in older people.  Left to my own devices I caught up with this blog in the garden, till I began to feel too hot. Crept inside and rearranged some clothing draws, tidied up my study, hung washing on the line... Did lots of small jobs requiring little or no gusto or vim. Called Mum to see how she was do...

Ah merciful warmth. The new boiler is fully installed. Heat coursed around the house late this afternoon, and it was glorious. Obviously this had been the coldest week of the year, but now that we have heat, and hot water too, everything is glorious. Chris had done an excellent job, and is a lovely bloke. This morning, I mooched off to shops, and during the day there was a certain amount of gardening, poking bamboo sticks into the ground by the raspberries and gojiberries and trying the bamboo tripods at the top to the pergola and other rugged manly stuff.   Dawn came around for lunch.  We sat in the kitchen, eating Lorraine's delicious vegetable lasagne, and having long chat. For one reason or another we'd not seem much of Dawn for a while -- and there was even a swap of Christmas presents. Including a wee bottle of their home made sloe gin. After Dawn left, it was possible to move around the house without a blue nose, and have a shower and not be savaged by arctic skuas etc....