As I closed the curtains before climbing into bed last night, a saw the rising full moon just above the roof ridge in the street beyond the back garden, not yet risen above the chimney stack. An enchanting sight. I took out three different cameras to take pictures, mostly on auto settings as there wasn't enough time for adjustments to match the night scene, or set up a tripod. None of them were particularly good, but I think the Olympus OMD E-M10.1 was better than the others. At 25C the temperature was comfortable enough to sleep without a covering, though not long enough.
The doorbell rang frenetically at eight o'clock, so I had to jump out of bed and run down stairs shouting 'Coming!' hoping I'd be heard. It was the Ashton's fishmonger delivery man with a heavy bag of supplies for freezing. I took the mixing bowl of pancake batter from the fridge and replaced it with the fish bag, then returned to empty the dishwasher, lay the breakfast table and cook pancakes, a double amount. As expected, Jasmine and Louie surfaced late after their flight. Louie then went back to bed, Clare, Jasmine and I went to Thompson's Park to check on the moorhens. By this time the temperature had risen to 33C. In the year since I last experienced such hot weather in Nerja, I seem to be adjusting to the heat more slowly. A product of ageing I suppose.
Neither Jasmine nor Louie were ready to eat lunch or are not accustomed to a midday meal, so Jasmine took him to explore streets of Pontcanna she remembers from her last visit. I had another go at setting up the Mesh wireless extenders, and succeeded in attaching a second one to the network. Then I finished setting up my new Dell laptop, installing a link to my phone. The data transfer from old to new phone was comprehensive except for one tiny feature, the link to my customised ring tone. I found the original MP3, but not an excerpt from it, and realised I'd used a three minute track instead. I had to send a copy to my laptop to edit the track and make a 30 second ringtone, to send back to the phone. I had no desire to learn how to do sound editing on my phone. I didn't think it would be such a fiddle to send files back and forth between devices. In the end I connected them by USB-C cable, a familiar routine, and in effect quicker. Job done. Then I uploaded all the photos taken in the past week and editing where necessary. and didn't venture out again until late afternoon.
It was still very hot, but wearing a hat and walking in the shade as much as possible made it bearable for an hour or so, then I headed home to cook a veggie pasta dish for supper. Unfortunately Louie was feeling poorly and didn't join us, just Jasmine. As sunset approached and the temperature dropped to 25C Jasmine and I went out and walked for an hour, talking photography. She said that on this trip she's brought a film camera with her, but accidentally forgot to extract them from her baggage for scan free inspection at the airport in Phoenix. She's using low speed film rolls which can survive CT and Xray scans unimpaired. It's the most sensitive high ISO films that are most vulnerable. It's a case of traveller beware, I'm afraid.
Just as I was about to go to bed, Jasmine asked for a door key, as she decided to go out in the dark and take Louise with her to enjoy the cooler night air. Both of them are used to air conditioned houses, so our little heatwave must be hard going for them, on top of jet lag.
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