Dear LPG, 

There are many reasons for not being able to sleep.  I know many people of my age who often have the experience as they get older, but I am lucky enough not to suffer with any form of insomnia. Well not usually, but today I am getting a taste of what it is like to be up and about early enough to experience a summers twilight at 04.55 in the morning.

Today, (the today when I am actually writing this message), is the morning after July 19th, 2022, and it is the third day in a row when my early morning has been interrupted because I am so hot.  I know I am not the only one.  

From my perspective, yesterday was the hottest ever recorded in our United Kingdom.  It has been this warm for over a week now and it is beginning to ware us all down a bit.  Usually, the weather is the first thing we talk about when opening a conversation as we pass someone in the street, but it has been headline news for the past couple of weeks and I, for one, cannot wait for it to get just a bit cooler.   

It is the kind of weather when doing anything is causing us so much effort and taking much longer than usual, and we have all been warned not to travel unless it is vital.  You can’t buy a fan for love nor money because the shops have run out.  Many schools are closed, people are working from home again and there have been a lot of what can only be described as bushfires reported on the news. We are used to hearing about them in bits of the USA and Australia, but Woolwich common was a bit close to home for me, and news of homes lost to the spread of house fires in East London is quite sobering.   Yesterday I took a laboured walk down to my local shop only to find that one of their rows of freezers could not cope with the heat, so lots of the colder items I need were missing.  

We have been warned not to take a train journey unless it is vital because train lines are likely to expand and buckle making them unsafe and there have been reports that Luton Airport found itself with a ‘melting’ runway while the news tells of a fire brigade which is having serious trouble coping.  

My garden is suffering as we learn that water is in short supply and, while there is no official hose pipe ban yet, I feel a bit guilty using the hose outside and anyway my older legs have become a bit swollen preventing too much walking.  We have even been issued with an extreme heat warning.

I have written this down for want of something else to do at this time in the morning and, having done so, I have asked LPG to save this message for 6 months so that, if you are reading it now and you are wishing that it was a bit warmer today, you have a memory or two of last summer to think back on.  

 GN, Bromley

GN has found a few memories…

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