Thursday 25th July 2019

Five (5) months to Christmas

Just so you know, and get the spouts on to boil. so they'll be ready for the big day.

Hotter than hell.

Yes, Thursday was forescasted, and was, the hottest July day in England on record.

And felt like it. Even if we live on the coast, it was hot. Damn hot.

Even by eight o'clock, the thermometer was showing the maximum temperature it could show. Damn!

Even shutting all the curtains, opening all the windows, sitting with no trousers on made little difference.

It was hot, and going to get hotter.

Jools went to work, left me at home to look after the cats and stuff. Though the cats either being all black or mostly black, knew to find somewhere cool and deep shade and vanished after being fed for the day.

I was alone.

And the month of summer vacation in DK went on and on. So, work was pretty quiet, so I monitored mails and calls, heck even switch the mobile back on after charging it.

Not much happened.

But it was hot, did I mention that?

At eleven, I went out to refill the bird feeders, not that there were any birds about, but it seemed right to go out seeing as the weather was fabulous.

Did I say fabulous, I meant hellish.

It was so hot, so hot that after literally a minute of being outside I was a ball of sweat.

I go back inside, sit on the sofa to work and watch Le Tour, and was even hotter. This is madness.

On Le Tour, in temperatures even hotter than here in St Maggies, the cyclists were entering the Alps, three massive mountain climbs starting at half eleven in the morning, going through until after 5, and keeping an average speed of close to 40mph or something.

I got hotter just watching them.

Phew.

At the same time I watching storms develop over France on a new stormwatching site, then drift over the sea and up the Channel towards east Kent.

Slowly they came, getting larger and larger.

Here in St Maggies, the skies began to darken, clouds gathered to the south and west, a hot breeze began to blow.

I cooked fried aubergine for dinner, served with salad and washed down with pink fizz.

And after, we took our wine glasses out to the patio to watch the storm build and listen to the thunder and gawp at the lightning strikes over the sea.

Soon, a hard rain began to fall, chasing us back inside, into the humidity of the house. Whilst all around lightning played and thunder rolled.

Dramatic stuff.

At half nine we went to bed, it still was hotter than hell, and the storm still rumbled on away over Thanet.

We fell into a fitful sleep.