Wednesday June 26th 2024 "Phew! Brrr! How do you like this so-called 'normal' weather?!!!!"

Friends, have you been suffering from the heat in the last week? I know that my long-suffering wife Lois and I have, to put it mildly (no pun intended (!)).

We Brits are always talking about it, aren't we, and keeping an eye on the likes of BBC flagship weather-woman Carol Kirkwood for the latest hints of what's in store for us, from Lerwick, Shetland in the north, to Belfast, Northern Ireland in the west, down to St Helier in the Channel Islands, in the far south.

A lot of workmen and tradesmen who visit us here in our new-build home in Malvern have the habit of saying that the weather "can't seem to make up its mind" - it's one of our British truisms, isn't it. One day it's too cold, the next day it's too hot, and then suddenly for weeks it's too normal, which can be just as punishing, for the news media for example [source: Onion News].

Well, our current mini-heatwave here in Malvern will be coming to an end soon that's for sure - Lois and I have been keeping an eye on it. Today, Wednesday, the high temperature will be 81F (27C)....phew what a scorcher....

...but from tomorrow and through next week, however, the highs will only be in the 60's F (about 18C) or even just the high 50's - it'll only get to 59F (15C) on July 3rd, for example, the day before the General Election. I'm voting by post as usual, by the way, so I won't have to go out and brave the cold - brrrrrr!!!!!

What a crazy country we live in !!!!!

So, today's the last day of "heatwave horror", and there isn't a breath of wind, so Lois and I decide to stay indoors this morning and go to bed in the afternoon - our bedroom is north-facing and cool, which is nice, to put it mildly: no pun intended (!). [That's enough unintended puns! - Ed]

Nevertheless, a lot of heat is being generated - there is no shortage of "hot" topics for us to "chew over", like the price of bacon for example. Topical for us, because just this morning I had been making out our grocery order with online supermarket Ocado, to be delivered Friday - we've got our daughter and granddaughters staying with us this weekend. And we note that the cost of our usual bacon order has gone up to a whacking £3.65, equivalent to about £8 for 1 lb, or 18.25 a kilo - yikes!

just the "fridge" section of our order - yikes !!!!!

Tünde, my Hungarian penfriend, has sent me a story from today's Hungarian news websites, reporting a recent campaign speech in Philadelphia by billionaire US Presidential Candidate Donald Trump [source: telex.hu]. In the speech Trump reportedly complained that bacon had become so expensive that even he had stopped buying it.

The Hungarian website comments, "What is interesting about this matter is that Trump's audience on this topic is certainly aware that the former president is not telling the truth. Bacon is one of the staples of the American diet, not exactly super-healthy, but it's a staple, so presumably everyone knows how much it costs. But if not, a quick Google search will help: a kilo's worth is around 11 dollars (4,000 Hungarian forints), which is less than the minimum hourly wage set by law in quite a few American states .

"In Hungary , a kilo of sliced ​​smoked bacon in a similar pack currently costs roughly double that."

You know me - I like to tabulate anything that moves, don't I!

No wonder the Hungarian news websites are a bit bemused today about Trump's speech!!!!

15:00 Later, our afternoon idyll is disturbed by a visit from Martin, our window-cleaner, but luckily he can't see us. We know he's not going to suddenly appear at the top of a ladder. As usual he does the upstairs windows with his giant pole, and when he's finished he just shoves his bill through the letter-box in the front door downstairs and I pay him online by bank transfer, so that's all right!

the slightly menacing effect of "Martin's pole"

appearing to threaten us through the bedroom window - eek !!!!!

16:20 We can't linger in bed as much as we would like this afternoon anyway - Joanne, our footcare-specialist, a.k.a. "foot-woman" from the AgeUK charity, is coming to see us, in a visit rearranged from Monday.

Nothing says you're old, as much as having to have somebody come in and cut your toe-nails, does it - yikes!

Lois's session passes off peacefully enough, but my session is a bit tiresome, because Joanne says she's referring me to the local NHS podiatrist for a second opinion about something or other. As usual she takes plenty of photos of my right foot with her phone - I hope she's not a member of some local foot-fetish group! 

[Not even foot-fetishists would be interested in looking at pictures of YOUR feet, Colin! - Ed]

21:00 To avoid the wall-to-wall sport on most of the channels this week, we again wind down on the couch with another old episode of the 1970's sitcom "Are You Being Served?". It's the series based around the moans and grumbles of the long-suffering staff of the menswear and womenswear departments of an old-fashioned London department store, Grace Bros.

And tonight it's nice to see a good example of one of the lesser-known "tropes" of this series - the attractive-but-dim secretaries that manager Mr. Rumbold tends to employ, like this one - Miss Thorpe:

When Rumbold tells Miss Thorpe that he needs a file, she starts looking in her handbag:

Later Rumbold asks her for the "Maintenance: Decoration" file:

Haha - never gets old, does it!

Unlike us - or the cast haha, who do get old.

Prompted by a question from Lois, I google the cast to find out who's still alive from the original series, and it turns out that they're all sadly dead now, apart from the actresses playing the succession of "nurses" in low-cut blouses and mini-skirts who used to attend "Young Mr Grace", and the attractive-but-dim  secretaries employed by Mr Rumbold, like actress Candy Davis, who played Miss Belfridge for 13 episodes.

Could these young women have discovered the secret of eternal youth?

I wonder.... !!!!

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!!