Cooling Down and a Birthday

The weather in the early part of this week was almost unbearably hot, into the mid-30s centigrade (90s Fahrenheit). In a country where houses are built to retain heat and don't have air conditioning, that isn't easy to deal with. A hammock in the shade with a gin and tonic helped. 

Then two hours later on Monday evening it was like this! Thunder, lightening and torrential rain. It didn't relieve the heat though, and Tuesday was just as warm - but more humid, so felt even worse. I feel the cold and usually enjoy hot weather, but even for me it was too much. The fan in our bedroom was on full speed during the night but didn't manage to do more than shift the hot air around. 

We went for an early morning walk on Tuesday and decided to do laps round the lake, thinking it would feel a bit cooler near to the water. It worked up to a point, but by the time we finished at 9am it was already getting hot. There was another big storm on Tuesday evening, but the weather didn't finally break properly until yesterday afternoon, when there was a series of smaller storms followed by overnight rain. I had been doing lots of exercise over the previous couple of weeks, and am now beginning to really feel the benefits with more energy, less stiffness and generally feeling stronger, but the last few days it has been a struggle to do anything much because of the heat. I am determined not to lose momentum! 

Today is H's 22nd birthday. She celebrated by taking TG on a shopping expedition to Milton Keynes, the first time they have been to the large shopping centre there since lockdown in March. She said she felt safe and comfortable, with people wearing masks, plenty of hand sanitiser and not too busy. She had an online introductory session for her new job yesterday and has now "met" some of the other new starters and found out more about how things will be working over the next few months, how her training scheme will be organised and so on. Most of her shopping today was for work clothes - necessary after living in trackies (sweatpants) and trainers much of the time as a student and during lockdown! She will start off working from home, so that initial induction and training can be done for the whole group of starters together online, but they are also keen to give them time in the office as soon as possible - probably a couple of days a week from late September / early October by the sound of it. This evening her BF came over and we had a birthday meal - she wanted a finger food buffet which mostly involved things in packets which just needed heating up, so nice and easy. She had been out for a meal with her BF on Tuesday, and we are going to R's for a birthday BBQ on Saturday, so she decided against having a takeaway tonight. Hopefully this will be a good year for her, as she transitions from being a student into her new career.