Too Darn Hot

Yet another 'hot' blog post title! Very appropriate, with the weather being so warm. Are we in a heatwave, and, will this title be redundant by the time I have finished writing it in a few days? Who knows, but with British weather so unpredictable, anything is possible. 'Too Darn Hot' is the title of a song in the musical 'Kiss Me, Kate.' I watched a recording of the 2019 production on the streaming service Broadway HD. It's one of those shows I have wanted to see for a long time. I know most of the songs and vaguely know the story, based loosely on Shakespeare's 'Taming of The Shrew', but up unit last weekend when I watched it, I had never seen a stage version. I know there is a film version, but I'm not a fan. It's one of those films where the colour looks over-saturated and it was made in 3D (Not sure about that, but I have a sneaking feeling.), so there's a lot of scenes where it's been set up to have things coming close to the camera, some things thrown to help with the 3D effect. I think it was a gimmick because TV had become available in everyone's home, Stateside, and in Britain, and it was done in an attempt to lure audiences away from the 'square box' in the corner of the room. The film 'South Pacific' is filmed in awful garish Technicolorr® which is plain awful, like one of those photographs you sometimes see which are monochrome but have had colour added. It just looks over-cooked, a bit like how colour television could be when it was introduced in the early 1970s. My father was forever fiddling with the first set we had, usually making the picture look dreadful. It would have been great to watch a programme with him forever altering the colour.

Sunday. 7 a.m. It's hot, and the sun has hardly risen over the horizon. We went out around 6.15. I didn't wake up as early as I usually do, but what does it matter?

The kitchen is hotter than ever. I won't be doing any baking for a while, that is, not until this heat is less intense. It's not made any better when the outside temperature is so high. Apart from anything else, it would make cooking considerably more difficult, particularly with ingredients such as butter, and with the oven on, even more, an impossible environment to work in. I will wait until later in the week and then have a go with scones, but this time I will make twice the amount of ingredients and use a larger cutter and see what a difference it makes. Those scones I made yesterday were a success and tasted excellent. I think even Mary Berry would have been impressed. Good texture, even bakes, good distribution of fruit, and delicious, even though I say so myself. And, dare I say it, no soggy bottoms!

The cough seems to be easing. I reckon the confounded medication which was causing the problem is working its way out of my system. I shall remain at home and won't go to church, but watch the service online as I did last year. 

Later. I have to clear out of the way as we walk down towards Oldbrook Green this morning. A Runner wasn't going to get out of my way and then, further round the path on the Green, a cyclist came up behind me and tinkled her bell, making me almost jump out of my skin. Far enough, I was warned, but I wasn't expecting it. Quite hot so we didn't walk the entire circuit of the Green and came back. I have my electric fan on to cool the lounge down. Even with the windows open, the place is still warm. The kitchen is excessively warm, as I've mentioned before, and with the window open, only slightly, because you can't open any of the windows fully, no doubt because the Council thinks the tenants who live in Dexter House have a habit of falling out, or, for that matter, let people climb in. It was the same in Milton Keynes Hospital when Carol was a patient. Even in the hottest weather, it's virtually impossible to get a draught to cool the place sufficiently. They did bring in portable air conditioning units, which is what's needed here, but I doubt they'd even consider installing them.

Later. As usual, absolutely nothing worth watching on broadcast television. Any more football and I think I shall ask for a refund of my television licence. The BBC seems obsessed with the wretched game. I could go on in this mode, but I won't. Otherwise, it will turn into a rant.

After some consideration as what to watch, I turned to streaming service Broadway HD and watched the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre production of 'Into The Woods.' Stephen Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics and James Lapine wrote the book. I'm a bit of a Sondheim fan, His shows are anything if not inventive and imaginative, and this is very imaginative. Not sure it's his most successful on its original outing, but it seems to have become quite popular and might even be regarded as having something of a cult following. This production has an interesting staging design, multi-storied if that's the correct term. In fact, thinking about it, the plot is 'multi-storied in the sense that it intercuts several well know fairy-stories by The Brothers Grimm.