Friday 30th July

I was awake really early this morning so took advantage of the Olympic coverage and it's been like that for pretty much all of the day.  It's been up to thirty four degrees inside and out and I've pretty much melted all day.  Never mind the heat and humidity of Japan and the Olympics, it's been pretty much the same here.  I took a break and went out to water the garden including the maple that I didn't want to get stressed out.  It was a seedling from the UK and it's now six feet tall...slow and steady and will be here hopefully much longer that I shall.  I've not seen many others especially the red ones so I take care of it.  The giant sunflowers were looking a little sad but soon perked up as did the zinnias in the old bonfire pit.  Three tortoise out this morning and I had Rosy, Blue Boy and my new green one so I filled up the bucket lids with water and left them around the garden for them to find.  The grass is still green so I know they get moisture from what they eat but it's a safety measure.

Having sorted the garden and the family I made toast and spread it with cheese triangles.  I fond some frozen spare ribs in the freezer and took them out for tonight but I've now put them in the fridge and they will live to fight another day.  It's just too hot to eat, thee temperature has gone up again, we had a brief respite when the wind picked up, the clouds rolled over and it started to thunder but it was over in a flash.  I did take the precaution of using the bungy cords on the chairs on the balcony, the last thing I want is to have them crashing through the windows into my bedroom.

I had a phone call from the UK and spent time on a catch-up and then showered to wash off the heat of the day, washed my hair and dressed very sensibly in white forgetting that I was anticipating having spare ribs...messy spare ribs and that was partly the decision to save them for tomorrow.  It's settled into a very calm evening, I didn't go for a swim and shopping today...it was just too much effort....maybe tomorrow,  LN.....I'm off to find something easy to prepare for supper......LN

Saturday 31st July

Somehow I found myself awake at silly o'clock this morning and managed to catch the triathlon mixed relay and it was fascinating.  We played a blinder and came away with an exciting gold medal and achieved with such conviction.  There are some things that we done with style, persistence and determination with no drama in the winning, for people who have trained hard with an objective in mind, wo win at the Olympics and those dreams might have been conceived from someone else's achievement in their youth.  Well done team GB. As you've gathered I've watched a lot of the different sports and have learnt a lot about the rules of some that I've never come into contact with before.  The boxing brought back memories of me trying to box my father as a child, he'd put his hand on my head and no way did I have the reach to even get near him and him telling me that I couldn't even box kippers.  A cherished memory brought to the mind.....magic.

I was still awake at eight despite not getting my head down until three thirty and I made coffee and put the television back on and caught a rerun of the mixed swimming relay where again we took gold.  There's a new vision, lots more mixed events which some like and others don't but as long as they are complementary to the main events I see nothing wrong in it.  Seeing the camaraderie makes it more human.  Toast for breakfast using the last of the bread, I watered the garden which seemed to take ages and was still wondering around in my night attire until I washed and dressed for the day with the intention of going shopping.....and I didn't make it.  I put a load of washing into the machine, pegged it out thinking that it would be dry more or less as I'd finished getting it on the line and went back into the house.  Settling down again I suddenly realised that the stiff breeze was now blowing the clothes horizontal on the line so I shut the door to the lounge and the door to the balcony from my bedroom and when I went back to the lounge I heard a strange noise that I couldn't put my finger on and then realised that there was a bird in the woodburner banging furiously on the glass trying to escape.  The usual routine is to close the curtains between the corridor and the stairwell so that it can't get upstairs and I realised that I'd taken the curtains down and washed them not bothering to put them back. Next plan of action was to remove the cover from the sofa, fortunately it was large enough to cover the space and I pegged it to the curtain rail with garden plant support clips and it worked.  I closed all the doors to the other rooms, opened the fly screen from the porch, opened the woodburner and out it came, resting on the curtain rail to get it's bearings, it headed out to the conservatory and after a couple of bashes on the windows went out of the door.....a life saved.  

I put the spare ribs into the oven at five, fetched the washing in, made potato salad and am now replete.  Another shower is on the cards, thirty five degrees again today and even the wind was no benefit for cooling down.  Time to go out and give everything a good watering so that overnight it can recover and as for me, I think a bowl of ice-cream might be on the cards with another litre of water.  I might be developing gills at this rate and will have to keep checking behind my ears.  This heatwave has been predicted until Thursday and it was thirty six today.  LN....And I was complaining that summer hadn't arrived!!.....LN