These past 2 days have been 'uncomfortable' to say the least. Monday, I was scheduled to work a 4-hour shift. It was warm work. After 3.5 hours, I overheard the supervisor asking people if they wanted to leave early as orders were down. I jumped at that, and left as soon as my pick was completed. I'm not entirely sure why I was asked to come in, though 3.5 hours overtime was gratefully received. Driving home, I noted it was 27C, and this was before 10.30am.

Late afternoon we'd hit 37C in the shade in the front of the house. We have a thermometer that I placed outside in the sun, that only goes up to 40C. It went slightly over the 40C mark. Good grief! The garden is a suntrap mind you, with white walls and concrete slabs. That's way too hot for my liking. I didn't sleep too badly, despite the heat.

Tuesday, it was 30C before 10.30am and just kept getting hotter. We waterered the potted plants early, picked some blueberries, and got 2 loads of washing dried very early in the day. I walked over to town to get some paint for the kitchen, did a small amount of cleaning, then the rest of the day I just sat in my chair trying to keep cool by drinking plenty of water. On top of my usual amount of fluids, I drank 1.5 litres of water; that's a lot for me! The obvious result of that, and the heat, kept me awake and I had the worst night's sleep ever. The bedrooms didn't get below 30C which is awfully hot for trying to sleep.

Wednesday morning I was up very early and hit the shower. We've awoken to grey skies and a merciful breeze and it looks like rain. I have laundry to get dried, however I'm not complaining, just hoping this is over, for now at least.

If this type of weather becomes the norm, then UK houses, especially new-builds, will need to be updated to include mandatory insulation, and possibly ceiling fans/AC and bug screens. Mind you, with rising costs here, even if we had AC I doubt most of us could afford to use it!