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Up half a degree inside, one whole degree outside. Pleased to discover that the boiling frogs analogy is false. But we have nowhere to jump. And it’s only getting hotter.
More bloody bonfires, ffs!
Tbf, we our front windows closed and blinds down, but still getting cooling breeze at the back.
Stable at 27°C in the living room, 25.5°C in the bedroom.
Drinking tea.
The Last Screw
Another DIY victory to add to my ever growing list.
Mum had her friendly neighbourhood gardener attach the two blocks of wood to the bench feet to raise it up so she could get on and off.
She then decided she didn’t want the bench after all, but it was too high to sit on comfortably for anyone else.
The blocks were attached with numerous long screws. Some came out. Some didn’t.
Having learnt from my earlier tortuous experience fitting a new toilet seat (full story still to come), I knew the best way to remove the remaining screws was to saw them off.
And (now I knew where it was) my trusty saw did the business right down until the last screw (it’s always the last screw).
I just couldn’t cut the last screw!
Of course! My trusty saw was a wood saw, not a hacksaw, and by now it could barely cut through butter (although it would certainly have melted butter, the blade was so hot). It was as blunt as the blocks I was trying to remove.
New hacksaw (and a few days to rest up) later, a couple of strokes of the fresh blade did the trick.
Now the bench is frankly a little low, but at least my bare feet can touch grass.
My neighbour: “It’s the hottest day of the year, a beautiful Friday evening after work, and the start of the Bank Holiday weekend and the school half-term. Everyone is ready to unwind and cool down a little.”
Also my neighbour: “TIME TO LIGHT A BONFIRE!”
Rather a confusing “economic migrants in small boats—good / extremists trying to stop them—bad” story, in the current scheme of things.
The deadly plane attack at the centre of Castro's indictment: bbc.com
Live at the Counter Eurovision '79
“without the knowledge of your history you cannot determine your destiny”
Forty-seven years ago, Misty In Roots played at the Counter Eurovision rock festival in Brussels, in response to the Eurovision song contest being held that year in Jerusalem, and in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Less than a month later, Blair Peach was murdered by the British police on the streets of Southall while defending the town from the National Front.
Ealing Council allowed the march of the fascists to go ahead despite a 10,000-strong petition from local people opposing it.
Clarence Baker, Misty In Roots' manager, was violently assaulted by police that day and left in a coma for five months.
Organist Vernon Hunt was jailed for six months on trumped up charges. He was so broken by this experience of state oppression that he never rejoined the band.
Today the British government allowed another fascist march in London on the anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba.
Today I dragged my 11 year old down to the Dominion Centre and Library in Southall to meet Misty In Roots in the entrance foyer and learn a little history.
The Dominion Centre is the site of the former Dominion Theatre where Blair Peach’s lifeless body lay “in state” for six weeks while thousands visited to pay their last respects.
This iconic photo of Misty In Roots outside the entrance now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.
We came home with a signed limited edition red vinyl copy of arguably the best live album ever recorded. We spoke to some very nice people. And we bumped into my friend Happy.
And we met Poko, Kazi and Tunga from the band.
“if you’re not conscious of the present you’re like a cabbage in this society”
The Magic Faraway Tree
Took my boys to see The Magic Faraway Tree. 📺
I always remembered my favourite primary school teacher reading The Enchanted Wood and The Magic Faraway Tree just before home time every day. I loved the idea of climbing up through the clouds into a new magical land. I’ve had my head in the clouds ever since!
My boys both enjoyed me and their mum reading the books to them, too. That’s so long ago for big kid now that he didn’t want to go to the cinema and miss out on his “device time”. So he was very pleasantly surprised and amused to find himself laughing out loud all the way through. He particularly enjoyed the school/prison scene which he said was “just like” his high school, haha!
Little kid got very excited/frightened when little Fran(nie) got stuck in the Land of Goodies and he thought she might not make it back to the ladder the the Magic Faraway Tree in time. He was shaking and jumping up and down in his deluxe reclining viewing chair. Later, he leaned over to me, clawing at me. I put my arm around him and tried to comfort him.
“Are you all right?”
I asked.
“I want to eat.”
He said.
“You want to leave?”
I asked, doing my best Saucepan Man impression.
" I want to eat, silly."
“You want your feet up?”
“DAD! I’M HUNGRY!!!
I magicked a bag of his favourite cheese and onion crisps from the darkness.
I found the whole thing very charming, funny, and really quite emotional.
I wished I’d brought more tissues with me, but it turned out that I had just enough in the end.
Little kid has been finding, photographing and naming plants at school, so we did a little homework this afternoon.
He knows what a daisy looks like, but he thought that dandelions were sunflowers. “How does the lion get in?” he asked.
Pictured: Red Robin. Dark Star. Purple Archangel.
Little kid is back into space big time again. He’s been playing Universe Sandbox and watching all the associated videos. He keeps going off on long and technical descriptions of planets and their orbits, ending up by describing a planet that is “habibabububble”. It’s reached the point very quickly now where he does it deliberately and purely for laughs. It’s our favourite in-house stand-up running joke.
Today, on another matter entirely, I was interviewed by a proper journalist about a massive housing development in Southall. After my usual rambling spiel about broken promises and toxic land, I said, “One question you might want to ask the developers and the council is how many affordable homes there will be. Because in the planning permission it’s not clear at all. In fact, they don’t mention affordable homes at all, only rooms that are habibabububble.”