Hottest Day So Far

Today has been the hottest day so far during this current spell. It was a Monday too and the temperature in the office was just about over 90 for the whole of the day and that made it tough. I work in an office in Ilford, East London for a small book company called Wisdom Books, and the building faces almost due south which means that it gets a lot of sun. On this particular occasion it was hot as soon as we walked in as it had built up from over the weekend. We knocked off at 5 instead of 5.30 as a consequence of the heat, convenient in a way since the World Cup is on and leaving for home ½ hour early means it is possible to see the majority of the early evening fixture. Well I guess that this is what the World Cup is all about, just doing things differently for a while. No harm in it, Wisdom Books can afford it in the sense that we have all been doing the jobs we do there for many years now and losing a ½ hour here and there really is not going to make that much difference.

The week is supposed to get cooler from here on in but then again you never can tell. Who knows? With the way that the weather behaves in these times maybe it will never cool down ever again and I can always sit like I am right now in just a pair of shorts and nothing else with all the windows open and it already gone 11 pm. Sitting here typing these words kind of half hoping they are going to make sense and might even be entertaining and funny although truth be told that is not going to be likely. In one way I guess that would be really great. Not so great for the planet I guess as come December and I am still sitting here like I am right now then we’ll most definitely know that things have gone wrong, regardless of what those sceptical American politicians in the White House say.

Apart from watching the football and heating up a Pizza Express American Hot I have spent a good deal of time this evening surfing the Net in search of booking a holiday for me and Tamdin. Finally think that I’ve found a nice little cottage for us right over on the west coast of Ireland for the beginning of August. It will cost the best part of 700 quid but that includes the ferry and insurance and the fact of the matter is that we have left it late this year as we always do so I think that if we are going to go for it we are just going to have to bite the bullet and hand over the cash. Never been to Ireland but have always wanted to go and hey who knows time might be running out for doing such things so better to strike while the iron is hot.

Work is running down into the real grind stage of the year anyway, the orders are slowing down and the barren summer months are most definitely now on the horizon. Nothing much we can do about that although god knows we try in our own way to keep things moving as much as possible. This is how it is always going to be as far as my work is concerned anyway, pushing things around in an effort to keep things moving along…well, something like that. The bottom line is that by ending up working for Wisdom Books which I have now done for nearly the last 17 years I have really blown it in terms of making something out of my life. That is the uneasy thing I guess that I have as I sit there in the lounge watching the World Cup; seeing all these people who if nothing else have at least achieved the dream of playing football for their country, fine sportsmen. Even the spectators have done more than I have, at least they are there in the flesh over in Germany, drinking in the sun and the atmosphere of what is greatest sporting spectacle on earth. For me it is just the case of watching the whole thing on TV again and I guess if the truth were told I have now more or less watched every World Cup since 1970, which of course means that I missed out on the big one. And it has always from the safety of my own armchair so to speak. Now look at me, hitting middle forties with a bit of a gut, little inclination to do any exercise and in front of the box again. It is most unlikely that things are ever going to change now. In fact I think I’ll stop typing this and catch the late night highlights of today’s action, even though I have already more or less seen it all already.