A lunchtime assignation

 Today I met a man for a lunch date.  it's been a long time since I did this, but I was out shopping and suddenly had to see him, so I phoned and though he was very busy and couldn't talk in front of the people he was with, he agreed to snatch a quick break and meet me.  We met in my car and quickly drove away from his place of work so his colleagues wouldn't intrude on our short time together.  We drove down the hill, bought some drinks and sandwiches and walked to a local park to have a picnic lunch.  The sun was again shining and the trees in full bloom created a wonderful dappled shade paradise under the trees.  We spent about an hour together talking, laughing, flirting outrageously and enjoying this rare lunchtime meeting.  He considered taking the rest of the afternoon off, but had to get back to work.  I drove him back, dropped him off and came home.  What a delightful date.

These hot May days are such an unexpected bonus for us. London summers are usually such a disappointment.  I still hear people reminiscing with nostalgia and longing over the hot summer of 1976.  Indeed, 1976 was a relentlessly hot summer. My parents came here and we rented a flat in Brighton on the South Coast for a week.  I remember waking to sunshine and heat in the morning and spending most of our days at the beach.  The unusual weather quirk that summer was not just the heat, but the reliability of it.  In the States you can be guaranteed sunshine in the summer, in Tuscany and Provence you can bank on it. In the UK it's really hit or miss and mostly miss.

I'm always pleased when we have a week of sunshine in the height of summer, so to have four or five days of heat in May is unusual.  I think it brings out an animalistic feel in London.  Tempers are shorter, hemlines are shorter and clothing becomes more and more bizarre. Because we have few days of really hot sun (or have had up until now) most people have a standard 'summer wardrobe'.  This usually consists of a pair of shorts, a few summer tops, a flowery skirt for women and flip flops or sandals for some. The same set of hot weather clothing gets put away every autumn and remerges wrinkled and seemingly ready to wear at a moment's notice, such as this weekend.  Men seem to like to walk about shirtless and the variety of protruding beer bellies and hairy, spotty backs is astounding. Women are suddenly exposing vast amounts of flesh that is rapidly turning a bright shade of sunburn pink. Today I saw far too many men wearing shoes with dark socks and shorts.  I even saw a man with sandals, socks, shorts and a suit jacket over a tee shirt. Charming!  Never mind the damp, pale,squishy toes that haven't seen daylight for ten months.

Ralph and my son used to share shorts.  They had two pairs of shorts and since they were the same size they would wash and wear them alternately and this worked pretty well for a few years. The weather was never consistently warm enough for them to need shorts daily. Then my son moved to California and the arrangement to share shorts had to come to an end.  Ralph got custody of the shorts.  After all, the chances of needing shorts in California are much greater so my son wanted to buy some newer models.

I just watched the weather forecast and I am happy to announce that those rarely worn shorts can be re-packed until the next sunny day.  The temperature is due to drop by 10-15 degrees by the end of the week and the British populace can return to their drab colours and miserable expressions.  We can stop smiling at each other, snapping at each other in traffic and asking if it's hot enough for you yet? We can return to normal behaviour and that usually means we can carry on complaining about the weather. What a relief!