It makes me realise how much of this job is just turning up and smiling and being interested. I arrived at school as usual on a Friday, but only three pupils turned up for music, one of whom didn’t belong there anyway as the others were all involved in the sports. So I thought, rather than just slope off home, I’d go and show an interest. And do you know, five teachers all came up separately to shake my hand and thank me for coming.
It was hot and sunny, but the breeze was refreshing this morning, which one couldn’t say this afternoon when the wind turned warm and humid. This evening, I picked broad beans, courgette and swiss chard and then went to cook dinner – with both Aga lids up and several pans simmering, the kitchen was dreadfully hot and I felt extremely hot and bothered by the time dinner was ready. Afterwards, Dilly and I walked round the village to put up posters for the festival next Saturday – it was still too warm to refresh but I did cool down to an extent.
We had our first tomato from the garden yesterday, by the way – most of it, at any rate. A blackbird (I suspect) had sampled it first. I picked it to eat anyway – I’m not concerned about germs from a tomato shared with a bird. I’ve caught a lot more diseases from people than I’m ever likely to get from any other animal.
So, did you join in the races?
The first races were all running events and, of course, I’ve been forbidden to run by my surgeon. I had to leave before the other competitions started. All I was ever good at was long jump and javelin.
We have a nice heatwave here with temperatures reaching nearly 40° Celsius – late afternoon siesta is a good invention. Only I was good at was throwing things away, like the discus, javelin or shot put (Kugelstoßen). Everything running or rolling around on the ground was a sort of desaster.
I could throw the discus a long way, but not necessarily in quite the right direction, so they had to clear the field for me. Javelin was, surprisingly, safer.
I am not complaining about the heatwave, I’m enjoying it – though I think it’s nearly over.