We're having a heatwave, a tropical heatwave

"Into each Life some rain must fall"

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Well folks, it's now official ' I am hot!!' and I don't mean in the good looking sense, far from it. In my sweaty state I can definitely say that not only do I not feel good looking, but also I don't look good. I have a permanent sheen of perspiration over my whole body and you really don't want to know what's going on between the sweaty thighs. Well perhaps you might, but you're probably just a pervert!!

The past few days in London have been horrendously humid - London is not known for hot weather - but it is known for rain and we have had plenty of that as well. You would have thought that the rain would make things easier, but all it did was raise the humidity levels even higher. For all you ladies out there who are fighting the frizz 'You know what I'm talking about'.

Londoners are not used to coping with hot weather and neither is our transport system. It seem that every day on the news we hear stories about passengers being stuck in the tube(underground) for several hours, where the temperature is almost twice the surface temperature - you could possibly crack an egg on a bald man's head and watch it cook!!

Work in my library has progressed slowly as we take it in turns to stand in front of the office fan, before moving on to the next task. This week is the first week for our Year 10's to do work experience and some of our special needs kids were not able to get placements for whatever reason, so some of these end up working with us. The young lad we have working with us at the moment has speech problems and can find it a bit difficult to carry on a conversation - there is certainly nothing wrong with his brain!! He has carried out all duties more than well and needs only to see a job done once and he remembers it. I am sure he will do well out in the big wide world.

Another lad who started work experience on Monday, has already been sacked!! He started work on the first day, late, he carried on conversations on his mobile(cell) phone, whilst he was supposed to be looking after the children and shouted at them to shut-up, because he wanted to chat - they were four year old children!! Needless to say, the nursery decided he wasn't the child-caring type and sacked him!! He is now working with us in the Library and has spent the whole day scanning documents and is bored to tears - perhaps next time he will learn how to behave??

Haven't had much time to read lately, but I have started to read a book called 'The five people you meet in Heaven' by Mitch Albom. It is a story about an old man who dies in an accident, whilst trying to save the life of a child - he dies and when he wakes up, in the afterlife, goes through a strange journey of discovery with five people who were in his life. I don't really know how everything happens yet but will keep you posted when I finish it.

I don’t know where my children have gone this evening as they are both running late and are normally home by this time. I’m not really in the mood for cooking dinner tonight, so I might get one of them to make a meal for me, for a change.

If I haven’t mentioned this already, I thought I would tell you that I have lost 7lbs on my low cholesterol diet, which I have been keeping to for the past 3 weeks. I haven’t used any particular gimmicks; I have just cut out red meat, cheese, butter, crisps, cakes and biscuits. I have been eating loads of fruit and veg, which seem to be making me run to the toilet more often – but at least I can get into some of my pairs of trousers that haven’t fitted for a while and that’s good news.

I am off to Namur in Belgium on Sunday, so I probably wont be posting next week. This is a school trip for 90 kids and 10 staff. We will be visiting several places around Belgium, including: Limestone caves, a space centre and a theme park. So it should be fun for all, hopefully I will get some decent photos.

Off now to see what I can eat, that’s wholesome and healthy – mmmm, what shall it be celery or carrots, lettuce or radishes – the choices are infinite.

Until then “Let’s all be careful out there” as Paradise Driver likes to say.

Jo xx