As hot as Spain

A comfortably warm night, a consolation as a painful shoulder added to my wakefulness. It's hotter than Málaga here today - 30C, as opposed to 23C on the Costa del Sol. I had a lazy morning indoors out of the sun. It wakes me time to acclimatize, and as medications dehydrate me, extra care drinking enough water is vital. The heat is going to persist for a while, the media already talks of a heat wave and record breaking high temperatures.

I read an article about saving wear and tear on a digital hard drive by disabling its 'fast boot' setting, Both my Windows 11 devices have digital hard drives and were several years old when I bought them. Length of life with a used device is uncertain, so better safe than sorry. It took a while to find the relevant means to disable the setting - it's not as if I need to boot up extra quickly, when my uses for a Windows 11 device are limited. If I want speed, I have the convenience of a Chromebook as a writing and editing tool, and can live with its limitations. Sound and video editing are what I use Windows for. With practice I could do the same on a Linux device, but learning how to achieve this habitually at speed would be an effort when my brain is sluggish and dull for lack of sleep. Remembering how to find and use the legacy Windows Control Panel to disable 'fast boot' was a slow exercise. As I don't use my Honor laptop often, undates were needed which took a couple of hours to download and install. 

Meanwhile Clare baked sausages and potatoes, and cooked green and red cabbage for lunch in the garden under the shade of our umbrella sunshade. A family of sparrows in the vegetation on top of the garden wall accompanied us with their chirruping while we ate. After a siesta in my armchair, I walked for an hour in Llandaff Fields. The afternoon sun was very strong and I navigated a course from one patch of tree shade to another to avoid sunburn. There was a cooling breeze from the west, but the wind was pleasantly warm, a change from how it has been for months.

I went out again after supper as the temperature began to drop, this time for a circuit of Thompson's Park. I saw one moorhen on its nest, but instead of the other parent at the water's edge there was a juvenile bird which had shed its hatchling down and was growing its flight feathers. It probably hatched while we were in Tenby. I wonder if there's a second clutch of eggs under the bird on the nest? Time will tell.

I completed by daily distance returning home, and started getting ready for bed.  I rubbed Voltarol into my shoulder when I got up this morning and it hasn't been painful during the day. Hopefully I can make up for last night's broken sleep. It left me feeling light headed and a bit unsteady for most of the day.