Saturday 27th June 2026 - Not Quite as Planned and Some Like it Hot and Some Don't

The weather let me down on Wednesday.  It was forecasted to be very warm and this is why I booked a Rug Doctor to clean carpets and upholstery.  I thought the warmth would dry everything very quickly.  However, the forecast was not entirely correct, it wasn’t cold but definitely not as predicted.  As a result, come the evening, areas of carpet were still damp and the upholstery wet in places.  Just goes to prove – I shouldn’t assume temperature projections are going to be correct.  We’ve hired a Rug Doctor before, they are quite awkward to lift and fairly heavy too, taking both of us to get it into the car.  The machines do an excellent job removing the dirt; proof is in the water tipped out of the collecting vessel.  I can recommend the hiring process I used.  I booked and paid for the Rug Doctor hire online to be collected at 8 a.m. from a locker located within Morrisons in Cromer.  I was provided with a code to open the locker and advised to select and pay for cleaning items at one of the cash outs.  This worked perfectly, in fact we were able to pick the cleaner up half an hour early.  Return had to be made within twenty-four hours, of collection, to the same locker and code.  You can also have the cleaner delivered, along with an upholstery attachment and cleaning liquids etc. – ideal if you don’t want to or can’t lift, or haven’t got a vehicle.  Having extolled the virtues of Rug Doctor, I should add I don’t have shares in the company!

The media are still harping on about the country being in a heatwave, with generalisations and little consideration for regional differences.  For example, here on the coast, we have had some high temperatures (above 25°C) but mostly we’ve had pleasant and warm summer days.  There was one exception on Thursday when a sea fret came in and because of this, at times it was chilly and damp.  We don’t have a problem with heat, maybe this is down to all the weeks we spent walking in Greece but I appreciate there are those who find it very uncomfortable.  However, I do think closing schools, retailers shutting early and cancelling some events is a bit over the top.  Those of us who can remember back fifty years, know recent conditions cannot be compared to 1976.  This was when in May the heat kicked in and continued through until the end of August.  There was no rainfall from May until August Bank Holiday.  We were advised to stay hydrated by drinking a pint of beer a day accompanied with a packet of crisps, to maintain salt levels.  The reservoirs were nearly empty and there was talk about cutting off water to homes and putting stand pipes in the roads.  This would have involved all household water being collected from a tap on the stand pipe; fortunately, this never happened.  Schools didn’t close, neither did businesses or workplaces – life carried on.  Some found sleeping at night to be a problem, so you had to allow for colleagues being a bit ‘ratty’ because of this.

Today’s photo is of the one of the fungi, the largest, growing on a dead tree, which I mentioned in my last blog.