Shopping on the hottest day of the year.

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Friday 17th June was reported to be the hottest day of the year so far. In places it was said to be 30° (I don't know if that's centigrade or Fahrenheit). Because it was going to be so hot I got up earlier so that I could go shopping earlier and avoid the hottest part of the day. I set my alarm for 7:00am and I managed to get up at 7:00am. I had my pills at 7:20am so my breakfast was at 7:50am. Mum was hoping to go shopping to the big Tesco for a Father's Day present for my step-dad and maybe some other bits and bobs. She told me she would get my step-dad to drop her off and pick her back up afterwards like he does on a Wednesday afternoon. So if she wasn't in when I got back I'd know where she was. I started out at about 9:00am. I was going to go to the toilets by the Cathedral first but I was so early they were still shut! It's a good job I wasn't bursting! First thing I did was get a bottle of Kambucha from Holland and Barrett. I was worried they weren't going to have any because they didn't seem to have many in the last time I went. But they did and I got a ginger and lemon favoured one. Then I went to Rileys to get some fruit and veg for my Mum. I got some strawberries, 2 golden delicious apples for my step-dad, half a cucumber, some radishes, some cherry tomatoes, some lettuce, 2 bags of sweets and some sour cream and chive flavoured savouries. My Mum had given me a £10 note and it came to £10.70. So I had to pay the 70p out of my own purse. They had scaffolding all round Dr Johnson's birthplace today. I think they are re-rendering it or else maybe just painting the outside walls. I went to the Waterstones bookshop to get a Father's Day present for my step-dad. I got him a phone holder and I got myself a tablet holder. I also got a card game with dogs on. It's a memory game and what you have to do is match the dogs to their puppies. So you have for example, a picture of an adult Dalmatian on one card, and a puppy Dalmatian on another card. So what you do is you place all the cards randomly face down and each person turns over a card. They then turn over another card and if you match the dog and it's puppy you win those cards. If you don't match a dog to its puppy you turn the cards back over and the next person has a go. The idea is to remember where you saw the dogs so you can get a match. The person with the most cards at the end is the winner. And no two cards are the same. I went to the till to pay for my things and a really nice chap served me. He asked me if I had a loyalty card with them and I said no, and he said, would you like one, and I said not at the moment, thank you. For 2 reasons. 1) I didn't really know how often I'd be going in Waterstones and 2) I was bursting for the loo by now and I didn't want to have to hang around too long! (I didn't actually tell him that though!) It was about 10:15am by now and I thought I might go into No.24 (the pub) and use their loo and then maybe get a cappuccino, but, when I went passed, the outer door was shut. (They always leave the outer door open when the pub is open.) I don't really know what time they usually open. So I had to make a mad dash to the toilets by the Cathedral again, hoping they were open by now. Thank goodness they were! There were some little children in there again today but these ones had blue uniforms on. (Royal blue is my guess because it wasn't a very dark blue, and it wasn't a very light blue.) After that I went to the Oxfam bookshop and got 2 vampire novels by Anne Rice. But the book I really wanted, Interview With the Vampire was still not there. No-one had had the kindness of heart to donate a copy of Interview With the Vampire. How thoughtless of them. I thought to myself, do I have enough money to go back into Waterstones and get a copy of Interview With the Vampire from there? I decided I had, so I went into Waterstones for a second time to get Interview With the Vampire. I walked all the way to the back of the shop where the sci-fi section was and headed straight for Interview With the Vampire. I put a copy of it on top of the trolley and then I was just about to turn round and head for the tills again when I thought, I'll just look and see if Foundation by Isaac Asimov is still here. I wasn't going to get it, I'd already got a copy at home, I was just curious. But when I looked up at the 'As' (everything is in alphabetical order by authors surname) it wasn't there! They'd sold out of Foundation by Isaac Asimov! But then I saw another book by Isaac Asimov - I, Robot. One that I hadn't got. So I grabbed it quick and bought them both! A lady served me this time because the chap from last time was dealing with someone else's enquiry After that I sat on a bench by B&M to eat my sandwich. It was still only around 11:00am and I only ate half my sandwich (well actually it was a tortilla) because I wasn't very hungry. I drank some of my Kambucha too. Then I thought to myself, do I want to stick around or do I want to go straight home? Because it was 11:30am by now and the hottest part of the day was meant to be 11:00am - 3:00pm I decided to go straight home. I walked on the lower path round Stowe Pool going home because it was shadier that way. After that I went down the cycle path instead of going all the way round St. Chad's Church. When I got home my Step-Dad's car wasn't there so I presumed he'd gone to give my Mum a lift to the big Tesco. But then just as I was putting my key in the lock to go inside, his car turned into the drive. I went in the front way with the trolley again because my Mum still hasn't dismantled the old trolley! I put Mum's receipt from Rileys on her sofa where she sits along with a little note saying "U Owe Me 70p"! Then I ate the rest of my sandwich and drank some more of my Kambucha, but I saved some of my Kambucha for dinner time. When my Mum came back she said she still hadn't managed to find a Father's Day present for my step-dad! She got some insoles or something, some chutney and some Turkish delight for her and my step-dad. But no Father's Day present! I showed her the phone holder I'd bought for my step-dad while he wasn't around. How was your day? Did you suffer from the heat?