Heatwave, sporting Brit humour and a solution to our misery....

OMG its sooooo hot at the moment isn't it?!   On Saturday I thought we were going to melt under our little plastic gazebo at the village fair we had a stall at!  

Just to give you an idea, the two of us drank our way through 3 cups of tea each, a full flask of orange squash, an ice lolly and two cans of diet Coke without one visit the toilet!  (I guess you can say we were sweating quite a bit!!)

Yes, I know - it is Summer and we would all be complaining if it was raining and cold but come on!  There was no wind and everything felt like such an effort - it was like trying to walk through treacle just to get from one end of the stall to the other!   There were lots of lovely visitors who were out in force to support their village day and enjoy the beautiful weather, however it was so uncomfortably hot they all gravitated to the refreshment and bar areas which managed to locate themselves in shady spots and they really didn't want to move too far from there (can't blame them really!)

I had to have a slightly sadistic chuckle at the poor kiddies in their foil fancy dress costumes who were slowly cooking before our eyes!  They certainly had more in common with an oven-ready turkey than the wonderful Jubilee icons their represented (it was the 25th anniversary of the fair).  The winners were a couple of adorable children dressed as the 20 pence piece (one was the front and one was the back!)  

Rather them than me, I say!  We were too busy being the sweaty grumps behind our stall trying to lean into any breath of wind which happened to venture our way!

Imagine our absolute joy when on the way home we heard "Tomorrow is going to be the hottest day of the year so far with temperatures pushing into the 30s in the South East..."  Hurrah!!  A nice stall in a glass-roofed section of Hempstead Valley shopping centre awaited us!

We kept calm with two magical words which became a mantra - Air... Conditioning...   We packed our additional lightweight jackets as we both dreaded being cold on our stall.  Oh what a wonderfully cool day lay ahead of us....

Hmm, one slight problem - the dreamed about 'Air Conditioning' had to battle the blazing sun coming through the greenhouse centre roof and there was only ever going to be one winner - and believe me, it wasn't the Air-Con!   Again, references were made to turkeys and the kinship of feeling their suffering in fan ovens up and down the country at Christmas!!

"Still, at least we will be busy at the great little shopping centre with lots of visitors who we haven't met before and that will take our mind off the heat...", we thought.   All started well, the morning was steady and we met some lovely people, made some sales and distributed lots of literature.  Then, 2pm arrived and the place was like a ghost town - everyone had left to watch the crucial England-Germany grudge match in the World Cup!  I had a master plan, however!  A small handheld TV meant that hubby and I could watch the action from our stall (what a great plan that was!!)

We were both so disappointed that our team was knocked out of a major competition yet again in controversial circumstances (why does it always happen to us?)  But at the end of the day England were outplayed and Germany deserved to win.  However, I was very sad during the drive home to see how all the lovely St George flags which were flying from 99% of vehicles we passed on the way there in the morning were suddenly all gone!   Well done to the one driver who continued to fly the flag!!  Sir/Madam, I applaud you!

What a fickle lot we are - I support England and whilst I was bitterly disappointed by the outcome this weekend, it doesn't stop me continue to support them - however bad I feel, I know that they feel much, much worse!   At least we can enjoy the rest of the tournament now (Although a sweepstake at hubby's work means that we are cheering on Spain from now on!)

I've always loved Spain, ahem.....  Come on Spain...

All the jokes are flying around "What is the difference between a teabag and the England football team?... A teabag stays in the cup longer!"  "Did you hear that David Blaine is devastated that his record of doing nothing in a box for 42 days has been broken.... by Wayne Rooney!" , oh, they're all out there....

The house down the road from us has been keeping us amused with their own messages pasted to the bottom of the England flag flying in the window following each game - after the terrible 0-0 showing against Algeria, for example, the simple analysis was four words 'Oh Dear, Oh Dear'

It now reads 'At least the flag was free with The Sun'  Don't you just love the English sense of gallows humour!!

But, don't be disheartened, help is at hand ifyou need some cheering up yourself or know someone else who does, I have the perfect pick-me-up - nip on over to www.studiocrafts.net and brighten your life with a colourful window cling - I promise that they will give a brilliant performance and won't leave you pondering "What if..."!!