The sun’s shining, the weather’s hot and it’s a simply gorgeous day – what else can one do but sit inside on the PC and write a blog entry about it?
Actually, that’s slightly less than accuarate [1] – I’m sure the sun’s shining somewhere at the moment, but it’s not here. Well, if it is then someone must have thrown a bucket of treacle over my window.
Yesterday and today, however, have been blissfully warm, just like a proper June [2]. It’s probably global warming or something, I should think, but the best way to worry about serious issues like that is over a beer or five in a nice, sunny beer garden. After all, everyone knows that’s where all the world’s problems get solved. Sure, they often get solved by things like magical hovering air conditioning units about which we’ll somehow fail to work out all the boring details tomorrow morning when we’re sober, but I’ve always believed that piddling little things like feasibility should never get in the way of an elegant solution [3].
I spent most of yesterday with my brother and his family pushing ourselves along the Cam on an oversized tea-tray [4] in the sun, balancing on that fine tightrope between under-tanned and over-tender. Actually, that bit was comparatively easy – it was balancing on the not-so-fine flat bit at the back of the punt that took most of my concentration. Tightropes might be jolly narrow, but they’re also somewhat less inclined to be rammed by giggling gaggles of hapless tourists, propelling themselves at a surprising speed [5] despite their punt pole never appearing to actually connect with anything except the limbs of anybody within three feet.
Still, despite a collision or fifty, one of which being a little unfortunate (hope your back’s feeling better, Bro!), I think, on balance, a good time was had, insomuch as a good time can be “had”, by all. In the case of the children, the excessive consumption of ice-cream probably helped.
In fact, I seem to have been fairly lucky with the weather so far this year. A couple of weeks ago I attended the wedding of my old school friend Darren, which was also a very merry time and similarly blessed with fine sunshine. Before that, I’d got a good few weekends of walking in the sun as well – living in the UK, this is probably quite shocking, so I attach photographic evidence:
http://www.andy-pearce.com/apps/album/item/1495
http://www.andy-pearce.com/apps/album/item/1550
http://www.andy-pearce.com/apps/album/item/1573
So, maybe it’s shaping up to be a fabulous summer?
Hm.
Or maybe the storm clouds are just lulling us into a false sense of security. Better enjoy it while it lasts.
| [1] | Uncharacteristic of me, I know. |
| [2] | As opposed to a British June, that is. |
| [3] | A view I seem to hold in common with large parts of the government. This wouldn’t be so bad if the Official Civil Service Thesaurus (34th edition, volume 18, chapter 9, section 54, paragraph 6) didn’t list “elegant” as a synonym for “tortuously labyrinthine”. |
| [4] | Or “punts” as us quaint old Cambridge locals like to call them. When we say someone’s a “punter” here, it generally means the opposite of what most people understand by the term – to wit, they’re the ones doing the ripping off. |
| [5] | And often in surprising directions. |