Project 52 2026 week 21

Phew, it’s been a hot week. I’ll be glad when it cools down and we could do with some rain too. Here’s what’s been going on for week 21 of Project 52.

Sunday – hot day again. Had a bit of a lie in, headed out to town for ingredients for pudding, and to go to B&M to check out big parasols (anyone got a cantilever parasol and have recommendations on the best base to get?). Then promptly forgot the other thing I wanted from there. Made a lemon and raspberry tiramisu for dessert, and we had a roast for dinner! Yes, still a roast in this weather.

Monday – hot again, around 31C. It was 25C by 9am. I popped to get some citronella candles for the window sills, then spent most of the day hunkering down in the cool. At least I’m getting through my various tv series I’ve recorded and not watched. But frustrating it’s just too hot for me to be out and about. I’d wanted to get to Blenheim’s Food Festival but I couldn’t cope with the heat in a busy place in direct sun. N cooked us BBQ tea while I made some salad stuff. 

Tuesday – another too hot day. Took N into town to put some money in his savings account, had a quick cafe stop for a cold drink, then back home to the cool. Read, watched tv. N cooked steak on the BBQ for tea, while I headed out dancing. 

Yes it was hot, even with fans. I now have a little clip on one on the back of my waistband which is quite nice, but the battery had died before the end of the second lesson which was disappointing. Empty classes though, due to the heat, but more room to dance for us hard core dancers (and I don’t know how the teacher keeps going for 3 hours!).

Wednesday – last day of leave, and wish I’d booked the full week off. Again a pretty chilled day. It was slightly cooler when I went off to the bakery. Quick nip for some tapas-y bits for tea. Forgot to get petrol which was frustrating. 

N was out helping the farmer’s boy down the road with some feeding. We watched a bit of The Rookie together, then I prepped tea, read my book and pottered in the ‘cool’.  I decided against going dancing because the Wednesday venue hall is always like a sauna, and I don’t know if they turn up with fans or not. There’s no way I could do 2.5 hours, so I decided I’d have a break.

Thursday – hot again, although we did have a lightning storm at around 2am. Loads of lightning, but only 1 burst of thunder, and about 15 minutes of rain. It was really quiet in the office but nice and cool. A colleague told me I always looked full of energy with sparkly eyes. Pretty nice compliment. 

Dancing in the evening was hot, but not too horrendous as we had lots of extra breaks.

Friday – Tesco delivery was cutting it fine especially as I had my INR appointment 15 minutes after my slot. Just made both.  Rest of the day was just work, longer than normal. We treated ourselves to fish and chips for tea as it was slightly cooler weather. 

Saturday – picked up my new reading glasses. They seemed ok in the shop, and with phone/book. But computer monitor text isn’t as good.  It might take a bit of time to get used to them. It was too hot for me to be walking around town, so stopped at the couple of places I needed then headed home. 

Chatted to the neighbours, watched a bit of The Rookie with N again, and then we had another BBQ for tea.

Flukily checked my bank app before spending some money online in the sales, only to find that someone must have got hold of my card details and been spending. 3 transactions in Birmingham Sephora and 1 in 5 Guys in London. If I’d not checked, it could have been ages before I noticed. So bank card cancelled, new one ordered. But my panic over having no access to pay for stuff this week was put to ease when my mobile wallet updated with the new card already. Whoop. No panic needed. My bank might be a pain for somethings (maturing regular saver and not being given the option to move it into a current account rather than it opening an unwanted savings account), but they are good when it comes to fraud.

Things I’ve enjoyed this week:

• Putting the world to rights with the chip shop owner! She’s so funny.
• Planning for Take That next week (and Wimbledon in July – although I’m concerned at how hot the latter might be given we didn’t manage to get Court 1 or Centre Court tickets, so we’ll be out in the open)
• time to rest and relax, however much a waste of annual leave it felt like.

Things I’m grateful for this week:

• Ice creams and fans
• N’s strawberry plants are coming on well
• Thunderstorm was mostly just lightning.