Thankyou all for your good wishes. Am back safely in my darkened but cooler flat with cool water from the fridge and my refreshed cold water flannel to hand. As no one can see me, I now rub cold flannel over my hair too which is also very cooling, Even going early, it was already pretty hot, so I ditched one or two plans and stuck to major needs. After having to go along one part of the pavement with no shade, I pulled in to a wider patch out of peoples way and then had a swig of very cold water and used the flannel to cool myself down before going into the shop. Two ladies stopped to say what a good idea and they would do the same in future!
Reasonably cool in Tesco , but I had to ask for assistance in getting the bottled water down, as these were now in groups of 12 instead of 6, and so weigh quite a bit. Glad that I had gone on the buggy as a car had managed to break down just at the turning for Tesco, causing a major jam, and the police there and cars having difficulty getting in or out. Wouldnt have been helped by the fact that there is not an inch of shade in the car park. I pass on another useful idea for those of you using your cars at the moment. If you take a bath sheet or towel with you, when you park then drape the towel over the steering wheel and over the drivers seat. Then when you get into the car, you can fold it and put it on the drivers seat to sit on, so more comfortable and a cooler steering wheel. The useful cold flannel can be in the side pocket to help as well!
I got most of the stuff I really needed, but despite trying to help myself, arrived home somewhat shattered , and needing to lie flat and cool down. So I have now got shopping put away and have enjoyed reading all your posts and happenings, admiring all your fortitude in doing things in this heat. I do think that probably now just being older I feel the heat more and need to take a bit longer doing things, compared to earlier years. When I came back from Syria it was summer here and this type of weather , and I was wearing jackets and jumpers , finding it quite chilly, and people would be wondering why I was wearing so much.
I have enjoyed the Robbie Cummins canalling more than the other one, and have quite a lot of memories of our varying trips. Good and bad, from anglers sitting on the entrances to locks and making it difficult to get any lines up, climbing up really slippy slimy green lock ladders, and some of the lock gates especially on the wider locks taking a lot of moving.
There are other lovely ones too, and a very special one was on I think it was a may bank holiday, when we were on the river Soar and had moored up in peace and quiet for the night. My son was very young and was in his pajamas and we listened to Wind in the Willows on the radio. As that came to an end and I said time to go in his bunk there was a splash and a water vole swam past. His eyes widened and he said Mummy its Ratty look. Ah such serendipity is to be treasured. Well keep cool everyone, hope all your plans work out well.
