Heart attack

Thursday, September 14, 2023

Hot And Humid

 Friday. 10.25 a.m. The summer is back in full force. It's almost as if it never went away, even though, officially, we are now into autumn. I have both fans running at full force, one in the bedroom and the other in the lounge. The digital thermometer currently reads 27ºC, although, on BBC Breakfast earlier, there was mentioned the possibility that the temperature would reach at least 30ºC. 

Alfie went to have a haircut yesterday. He was booked in at the Groom Room in Bletchley several weeks ago, in fact, I went directly there to enquire about a booking after I had taken my car to Anglo Motors. The appointment was at 4.30. So I left in good time, hoping to arrive at around 4.15. The problem was, when I got to the roundabout which intersects with Saxon Street and Standing Way, I discovered that the road ahead was closed, and without any warning further back I could find an alternative route to Bletchley. I turned right onto Standing Way and discovered a more or less solid traffic jam towards Watling Street. I got to the car park outside Pets At Home, where the Groom Room is based and managed to calm down, because of the stress caused by the detour to get there.

Having dropped off Alfie for his haircut, I then went along the parade of shops to Costa to have a cool drink. I had at least an hour to fill until I had to go back to collect Alfie. When I eventually left Costa and walked out through the door I was hit by the heat, a bit like opening an oven door. I don't get on well in heat, and it's particularly dangerous for me, having a heart condition and having had two heart attacks.

5.15 p.m. As I write this, the digital thermometer currently reads 32ºC, which must be some sort of record. I know that is indoors, but I have an electric fan on and all the windows in the flat are wide open.

Sunday. 7.55 a.m. It wasn't quite as hot and humid as it has been overnight for the past couple of nights, but still, the digital thermometer reads 27ºC. Hopefully, we will get a rainstorm which will relieve the heat, but with storms will come flash floods.

Monday. 4.05 p.m. The temperature had dropped considerably, thank goodness. The temperature outside is a good deal lower than indoors. Even with the windows open and an electric fan running, the digital thermometer reads 28ºC. I imagine this is because the heat we have had over the past week or so has kept buildings hot and will take a few days to cool down to a reasonable temperature.

Tuesday. 7.00 a.m. Thankfully, it's a good deal cooler this morning. The digital thermometer currently reads 25ºC. I slept somewhat better than for the past week or so of this heatwave.

Wednesday. 8.40 a.m. A bright and sunny morning as I write this. The digital thermometer currently reads 22ºC, so a far cooler temperature compared to the last week or so. I can sleep better in this sort of temperature.

A really good day at Camphill in the P.A.W department (Performing Arts Workshop.) yesterday (Tuesday.) We are developing material for the World War 2 project, which will be a play, running around 30-45 minutes. Many of the group went to Milton Keynes Museum to see the WW2 event. I went, but I wasn't feeling too well. As it turned out, I eventually had several days of a flu bug (which I mentioned in an earlier blog post) and I didn't stay at the museum long, unfortunately. I did manage to take some photographs with my Canon digital camera, but I have still got to transfer them onto a memory stick.

We had a long check-in. It went on almost to tea break at 10.30. Once back in the theatre after the tea break, Terrie set up a flipchart and the group was asked to give any information they had gleaned from the Museum visit regarding the Second World War. All these ideas and bits of information, however gleaned, would be put together to create some sort of script for the play.

After lunch, we got to the bit I have been waiting for for months, the first preview of the silent movies. Other Camphilll residents and staff came to see the films, projected onto the cinema screen. The first two films were created by a different group who meet on a Monday. The first was 'How To Rob A Bank', very much in the style of an early silent comedy. The second one, I don't remember the name of, and then we got to see the first of the three silent movies which we've been working on since around February, the first was a Western. Very amusing and I was intrigued by how the green screen process was utilized to create backgrounds, mostly sourced from what you would call 'stock footage', such as Western town backgrounds and steam trains. The second film was The Pirate Saga, in which I had a very small cameo appearance, although, at first, I did not recognize myself! Then we saw the third film, the science fiction 'time travel' epic, which I had been involved in from it's development and some of my ideas actually appeared on-screen. It was a somewhat complicated storyline involving, would you believe, Goldilocks, of traditional pantomime and fairy-story fame, time-travelling porridge (yes, you read that correctly!) space pirates (for want of a better word!) and in the past, zombies dancing to a rather weird version of The Macarena! But it all ended with the villains being defeated and everyone living 'happily ever after!'

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