We awoke to no internet this morning, something Keith told me the minute I walked into the kitchen at 6am. I was in a grumpy mood, anyway because of the heat, but that made me worse! I thought it was because our router had become too hot, but I later found out, thanks to Facebook, that the broadband was down in all of the surrounding villages due to some idiots stealing the copper wire in the cables. Phew! I had had visions of calling BT and trying to sort out the problem!
Driving to work at 7.30am, my car was registering 27c so I knew we had a very hot day ahead. Thankfully, our office was cool and we didn't have as many people milling about like we did yesterday. We had another busy day, and one of our pools was completely booked up before we even started taking calls!
When I emerged at 4pm, the temperature in the car said 44c, and I later found out that we had beaten the record today for the hottest ever, with 40.3c recorded in Lincolnshire. The heat had caused mayhem - travel restrictions because of train tracks buckling, roads melting and, worst of all, several house fires in the London area. Watching the news later in the day was like watching the end of the world as flames engulfed people's houses. It was apocalyptic!
When I arrived home, Monty was nowhere to be seen, and Keith said that he'd gone out. He'd tried to get him back in, but he was still missing. I called and called, shaking his tub of treats, but he didn't appear. The heat reminded me of when you step off a plane somewhere tropical (Florida) and the heat hits you in the face.
I went to the back door again and this time he was waiting for me, a mass of leaves and twigs attached to the fur of his belly. He looked in a bad way and was panting and breathing rapidly. I fetched a wet tea towel and tried to wrap it around his body, but he was having none of it, so we trained two fans onto him when he lay down on the carpet.
I honestly thought he was going to die as I've never seen him breathing so rapidly and pant so much. I gave him some milk watered down with an ice cube as he wouldn't drink anything else, and he gradually became a lot better, but he was still panting when Sophie arrived home from work. We left him in peace but there can't have been that much wrong with him as he was begging for chicken later in the evening!
After dinner, Keith and I watched a new TV drama called Murder in Provence, but I was far too interested in watching the weather to really get into the story. Outside, it had grown dark and the wind got up, making all the dead leaves whirl about in a frenzy. We did have some spots of rain, and then I saw Mammatus-ish clouds, which can herald a storm:
The breeze coming through the window was lovely but it was still very warm and continued that way all night. Upstairs, it was stiflingly hot - not ideal for a good night's sleep!
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