By yesterday morning James felt much better although still with cold symptoms. He felt well enough to come with me to Cirencester Swimming Pool in the morning. Luckily I had booked this a week ago, because it’s a very popular facility in the summer even when it’s not a heatwave, and last summer we found that it was fully booked when we tried to use it. It’s a very attractive outdoor pool, set against the backdrop of the castle, with a little tuck shop serving coffees and snacks. It was perfect for Tuesday, because this was the hottest day of the heatwave all over Britain. Scotland was hot by now too, but the south of England was the centre of the furnace.
Here in Cirencester the temperature reached 36 deg C, and it was about the same in Manchester where Davie and Chanel are. But almost the hottest place in the UK was London, where the temperature reached a sweltering 39 deg. Luckily both Ally’s and Cat’s offices are air-conditioned * The hottest temperature yesterday (and the hottest ever recorded at the UK) was 40.3 degrees at Coningsby in Lincolnshire, easily hotter than the previous record from July 2019. I have no doubts that this is due to the effects of global warming on our planet.
When we left the swimming pool we were strolling back towards the cottage in the extreme heat when we noticed the Corinium Museum, which is all about Roman Cirencester. We went in for a look and noticed that not only is it a beautifully designed and very interesting museum, but it is air-conditioned! Oh joy! So we spent the next hour looking around the displays, which were fascinating. A lovely volunteer guide wandered around chatting to visitors and telling us extra information. Did you know that Roman Corinium was about the same size as Cirencester is now, and that it was the biggest town in the land, after Londinium? I didn’t. The original mosaic floors from excavated Roman villas were in amazingly good condition, and there were very many artefacts and displays, too many to see in only one visit. There was even a wee café adjoining it, but one of the ladies at the desk tipped us off that the Café #1 just down the street has air conditioning, so thence we trotted for lunch.
Later in the afternoon we went to Bath, where we had tickets to see The Tempest at the Ustinov Studio. We had an early dinner in a mercifully air-conditioned restaurant (Las Iguanas) and then headed to the theatre, where they had the air-conditioning cranked up to the maximum. This was great at first, but I was wearing a thin sleeveless gingham dress with sandals and I started to cool down fast: in fact I became the coldest that I have been all holiday. And I didn’t even have my emergency cardigan with me; I discarded that many days ago after I realised that the evenings were still very warm. So at the interval we stepped outside the theatre with our drinks and it was like stepping into a warm bath. The play was excellent, as were all the actors. I have never seen The Tempest on stage before and I think that it’s one of Shakespeare’s finest plays, maybe the best of all.
* I notice that I have mentioned air conditioning five times in this post! It’s not usually something that crosses my mind but needs must!
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