Tuesday 26 May 2026: Melting…

Did you have a good bank holiday weekend?

Friday was a glorious day and I plodded steadily through the day’s objectives, doing all of the usual household stuff.

The clothes I’d hung on the clothes horse the day before weren’t quite dry and I had another washload I wanted to hang on the line. So I took both loads out and hung them up in the garden. Already it was scorchio.

I did my exercises, finishing them all well within the hour. The hour is there for when the repetitions increase. I started at 5 of everything the previous week and upped it to 6 of everything last week. This week we’re up to 7 of everything. I’m building up to 30s and I reckon I’ll need the full hour by then, including recovery time!

Incidentally, at my Monday weigh-in LAST week, I’d lost another half a pound, bringing me to 3¾lb lost in 2 weeks. At the time of writing this, I hadn’t weighed myself this Monday yet, so who knows which way it went throughout the last week.

At my desk, I rattled off Friday’s blog post, which I hadn’t done the day before, and I posted it on here and on Instagram only. I quickly did yesterday’s too, as it was an easy bank holiday post. And I started today’s.

More emails came in regarding the house move, which is great. Weeks and weeks of silence, then they all start coming in like buses. All the paperwork is now here. We just have to print it off, go through it all and sign it in front of witnesses. Then it has to be delivered back to the office.

I’d put another washload through in the morning, and it was so hot I was able to hang that on the line as well while the poet took the dog for a walk. He wasn’t feeling very well but thought a stretch of his legs in the fresh air and sunshine might be good for him, but by the time he got back, less than 10 minutes later, he was exhausted.

I had a hair appointment at 2:30pm and was going to take myself, but he offered to drop me off and pick me up, again to get him out of the house, I think, but also because he had to move the car anyway for me to get mine out. The hairdresser isn’t far from the house and he’d be 15 minutes tops. Plus the dog would get a couple of mini rides in the car plus a second walk to the butcher’s, while we were there.

I had to time to touch the client edit proofreading job before getting ready to go out. Then off we went.

It was so nice visiting a proper hair salon again, with proper hairdressers and proper people who aren’t too far up themselves. The new hairdresser did most of the chatting, but when the poet turned up to collect me, with puppy in tow (babe magnet!) (the puppy, not the poet) (although, of course, the poet is too!), it turned out that he was at secondary school with her sister and they had one of those exchanges where they swapped familiar names.

We booked me in again for 8 weeks time and with the promise that if my fringe needs cutting in about 4 weeks, then by all means I’m to drop in and see if anyone’s available to give it a quick trim. My former hairdresser didn’t encourage me to do that at all. Of course, I’d pay them and, of course, if no one’s available then I got back another time. So, on the whole, it’s good to find someone I don’t mind giving money to or going back to. Yay!

On the way back we dropped in at the butcher’s to get our meat for the week. Then we went back home and I finished the day with more proofreading.

On Saturday, the temperatures started to creep up and we had all the windows open while we started to do more house clearance ahead of the house move. Another load went to the tip out of the garage and the poet walked the dog while I was still at home so we didn’t have to close all of the windows. When he got back, I went and did the shopping, and when I got back, we put it all away.

It’s starvation day for tea on a Saturday, partly because Saturdays used to be gig nights and we didn’t have a lot of time. We had jacket potatoes, he had baked beans and grated cheese while I had sweetcorn with grated cheese. After the Monkey Dust farewell gig we’ll probably go through the meal plan and add in some substantial meal replacements. For now, though, we still have starvation day on Saturdays.

On Sunday, it was more of the same. We didn’t do a deal other than house clearing, running to the tip, and taking the dog on his favourite lakeside walk. This lake is too far from our new house for it to remain a regular, but we do have other walks over there. This one will be more for when we go for a drive out.

When we got back, we left the dog at home, for an hour this time, while we went to get new pillows. The poet’s were broken and mine were going in the campervan to replace 2 that got mildew on them because we left them in over the winter. So we had new pillows for the bed, 2 pillows in the bin, and 2 pillows that were put to one side to take to the van next time we go.

We were supposed to be having a roast chicken dinner, but it was too hot by now, as the temperature outside continued to go up. So we had a chicken Caesar salad instead followed by strawberries and cream. Well, strawberries and Greek yoghurt, but with honey on as well.

Monday dawned bright and hot. When the dog asked to go out at about 5am, the sun was already fierce. We left the curtains drawn all day and when the air outside was too hot, the windows were all closed. We had 2 tower fans set up in the living room and a giant, industrial steel floor fan in the hallway. The dog was scared of all of them, but they did their job and he slowly started to get used to them. This is his first summer and he didn’t know what to do with himself.

We did have some time in the garden emptying the shed, and the poet drove to the tip with a hover mower that’s hardly been used and 2 strimmers. He got a box down from the top of his wardrobe so I could go through the contents. And he pulled a load of boxes out from the shed, gave them a clean and an air, and stacked them in the conservatory.

The washing basket was literally emptied and about 4 washloads went out on the line to take advantage of the glorious weather. But it was way too hot outside, even for the poet, who has Mediterranean skin and tans really easily. Temperatures reached 32℃ (apx 92℉) and our hottest May ever was recorded.

We’re just not cut out for those kind of temperatures here in the UK. Air conditioning isn’t a thing, and fans just circulate the warm air. So we lounged in the living room for the rest of the day, and we had another salad for tea, this time a prawn salad (meat-free Monday!).

We are still melting. Temperatures are supposed to be lower today than they were yesterday, but as I write this we’re already at 31 (apx 90). We have thunderstorms forecast from about 2pm until about 10pm, but they’re going to be isolated, so we may not even get any of those. But if we do get a good rain storm, I may be taking the dog out in it.

The poet is feeling better today, after having man flu and giving it to me. I, of course, have merely a cold…