Now that weekend was what we in the trade call a scorcher (I did study Climate during my degree thus allowing me to call myself "the trade"!). OK, so Friady I was at work and not too sweltering. Which was good as the mouth was still quite painful meaning I did the bare minimum needed to get through the day before heading home.

Saturday was carnival day in Felixstowe. We popped in to town for a spot of shopping first thing then walked up again in the afternoon to see the parade. Joan's first as she's always been working in previous years. Once again there were some pretty good floats mixed in with the regular "good effort" ones and the obligatory majorettes. A phenomenon I still can't get to grips with. I can't recall any of the girls I went to school with having been involved with them (unless they managed to keep it very quiet). I still find them slightly sinister though. And it was exceedingly hot where we were stood - but then it was hot everywhere.

In the evening Helen, Bhupen and Alexander came along for a farewell and happy holidays tea. All good fun had by all, and Joan once more proved herself a whizz at rustling things up out of nothing.

Yesterday was hotter still. After a lazy start we went down to the sea front for some chips for lunch. Timed nicely to co-incide with a demonstration by the air-sea rescue team (what a big chopper!) and then a display by a Jaguar Fighter from RAF Coltishall up the road in Norfolk. Very good, and I do like my noisy jet fighters I have to confess. There was also some mild disturbance behind us at one point - it seems that there were a couple of men enjoying each other's company a bit too much in the bushes in the gardens and some daytrippers stumbled in to them. Glad it wasn't us. After an hour or so we had to head home due to being just too hot - there was a major haze on but the sun was still baking.

After cooling off we spent the evening watching Three Kings which was a good film. I won't say I enjoyed it, as the subject matter was a bit close to the knuckle - especially now George Junior has repeated his Daddy's work in Iraq. But it was enjoyable, if you catch the difference. Very well made and yet another film I look forward to the commentary on.

Now finished the Julian May expedition with the last page of Magnificat again this morning. Very enjoyable all over even if the end did seem a little rushed - OK so the gist of it is told as history in the Exile books, but it would have been nice to have a little more detail in the "contemporary" tale. There is also the 6 million year gap between the two series that I'd love to see filled in at some point. I now really must get her Rampart World's series under my belt. I have now finally gone back to non-fiction with Nancy Blackett - Under Sail with Arthur Ransome by Roger Wardale which, as the title suggests, is all about Ransome's real life boats. Again, I have read it before but after the last Ransome book felt the urge to re-read this one before anything new went under the eyes.

Woken up by a cracking thunder storm today which was nice - at least it made the drive in to work coole (and the rain and thunder started again just as I got there which made the walk up from the car park interesting). Of course the heat was back by lunchtime and the car was stifling on the way home again. Plus Gary & Charles back from Switzerland today full of life so I am looking forward to our trip there even more.