Everyone is talking about the heat! But not Mr Johnson, apparently. “Boris Johnson was accused of being “checked out”, as the prime minister missed an emergency Cobra meeting about the searing heat and attended the Farnborough airshow, where he gave a whimsical speech about completing a loop the loop and a barrel roll in a Typhoon fighter jet.”
Demob happy? Is anyone actually running the country?
Curious about why these meetings Mr Johnson doesn’t like to attend are called Cobra, I consulted the wikipedia oracle and discovered that the name stands for “Cabinet Office Briefing Room A” and refers to the emergency council which is formed when a crisis arises which will call for various different departments to work in tandem. There you go!
Farmers are worried about their cows. Apparently 20°C for cows is like 40°C for people. It reduces their milk yield - so it’s not just concern for the cows’ comfort.Some farmers are thinking of turning the “day” around, having the cows indoors in the daytime and turned out to graze at night.
Granddaughter Number One is concerned for her dog, who she reckons is just getting too hot, despite being given ice cubes to crunch. As for me, I went out early to run (slowly and mostly walking) round the village and to stop off for a couple of items at the coop store. The other day they were out of ice-cream. Today they have no lettuce and no hummus. We were warned about a possible hummus shortage weeks ago though. I don’t think we get our lettuce from India or Ukraine though, but you never know! It was already quite hot, but surprisingly cool still on the path through the trees between the two mill ponds. We noticed the same last night when we went for an early evening stroll. It must have enough shade not get heated up in the first place.
I popped out at midday to retrieve our dustbin. It’s not a very neighbourly thing to do to leave it on the pavement for too long. Just that trip to the front gate was enough hot sunshine for me.
It’s a year ago today since ‘Freedom Day”, when all the Covid restrictions were lifted. Here’s a link to an article about how the numbers of infections remain high.
Yesterday one of my friends in the Italian class told us that she, her husband and her son had all had covid over the last week. They have all been super-careful about wearing masks in public places, restricting their mingling and their use of public transport. Then her son went to a work social event - for the first time in ages as he usually he works from home - and apparently brought the germs back home with him. My friend appears to have been quite ill. The worst thing for her has been not being able to drink wine. It’s not that wine was forbidden, just that her taste buds stopped working! Not good for a wine lover!
Another of our group complained that he has been following government advice to the elderly and drinking lots of water - because of the heatwave - but abstaining from alcohol. He’s going through a stressful time selling his house and buying another so he feels the need for a little nip of whiskey. Our Sicilian teacher reassured him that he could drink wine, Sicilian of course, but in moderation. Old gentlemen who drink Sicilian wine in her bit of Sicily live into their nineties, she told us.
There followed quite some discussion about attitudes to the hot weather. Our ever-optimistic teacher assured us that this is just “something called summer” and said we should get used to coping with it. Apparently she was frustrated by members of a class she still does face to face emailing her yesterday morning to say, “I have been advised to stay indoors because of the heat as I am elderly. So I will not attend your class today”. Hmm! House to air-conditioned car and then car to cool classroom (our Sicilian teacher says it is a delightfully cool room - is probably not a real outing in the heat. But there it is!
One of our number bemoaned the fate of her allotment - all her plants are dying of thirst. She knows a lot of plant-related and horticultural Italian vocabulary and gives us regular updates of the progress. I am amazed she finds time to tend her allotment. My small garden is enough - but I have been watering the plants that grow in pots rather than flowerbeds. According to a gardening expert I heard the other day, leaving my flowerbeds (if they even deserve such a fine name) to fend for themselves is OK; they will have established long roots. Maybe my allotment owning friend has been watering her plants too frequently and they have not learnt enough independent survival skills.
That was our last Italian class for this academic year. We shall reunite in September, all being well. In the meantime we have a heatwave to cope with.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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