HOT DAYS

Well it's super hot today. In fact, we're having a little wave of baking days; days where you can feel the heat moving as you walk through it, where the pavement cracks under the sun, and sweat pours through your cardigan.* Though this is supposed to be the last one, followed by a cooler, rainier Friday.

The evenings are alright though. I sat in the park at sunset last night and it was beautifully warm and breezy.

And the night before that, I went to a barbecue! I know - lockdown hasn't permitted such things, but there were the approved six of us in a small garden, sitting apart on wooden garden chairs, chewing the fat. It was my friend Matt's birthday.

It was ever so nice to be reminded of a normal life. Real people I'd only seen on Zoom recently, laughed and joked around me under a fading blue sky and the wispy smoke of a grill.

I have another friend (not present this time) who's fond of saying that you should "pay attention to what fills your tank, and also what drains it". This little party was a tank-filler and no mistake.

With the weather, there have been a lot more barbecues of course. You can sometimes hear the garden-chatter, the sprishing open of cans, and the sound of meat sizzling happily. You can smell it too - bacon and beef, chicken and pork, wafting deliciously over the fences around the village. And of course all the alpha males are out in their aprons, regressing to cavemen, with the meat, the fire and the fresh air tingling in their DNA.

Anyway it's almost hot enough to do away with the flames and just use the sun.

-

I was expecting a parcel today. I won't tell you the name of the delivery company, but at 12:17 they texted me to say that my package was 'out for delivery'. I liked the language of this:

"Delivery will be attempted between 11:00 and 13:00 today," they said. 

Attempted. As in, the driver could just lazily lob the parcel into the garden, and that would cover them. "At least we told you we'd attempt it," they'd protest perhaps.

And anyway, it seems a little strange to give someone a delivery window, halfway through that delivery window. I rolled my eyes and sighed, clocking that I'd have to stay in for an hour - which, given the heat actually, was no bother at all.

I didn't have much time to think about it though, because at 12:19, the driver knocked my door and left the parcel on my doorstep. I presumed it had been him who had texted me from the van.

"Cheers," I said, closing the door behind me as he ploughed through the heat back to the road. It's really warm out there, and I definitely don't need to be wearing this cardigan.*

*This is of course, a joke.