I don't know why she swallowed a fly

But I made sure I had a spider in any case (vanilla and diet coke, yum!). Yes, summer has arrived in London with a weekend of temperatures in the low 30s, which has taken everyone by surprise, and has has meant a lot of lolling about in the park in the shade.

It's been really too hot to do very much as I haven't felt like trying to battle the crowds or deal with the Tube; last week one of the lines had signal failures which trapped 3 trains underground for about 2 hours, and they are now advising that you need to bring water with you when you travel.

A couple of the flatmates are talking about going to Wimbledon if we can get cheap afternoon tickets. While I don't normally watch tennis, I am tempted to go just to see what it's like, so might be doing that this week.

I take it back, people with cats are getting this for christmas

There's a nice little flash video showing what your cat can aspire to, and apparently will suit any cat, whether fat or small. Liorah, I believe the challenge has been raised for Elliot...

Follow the white kitten

So a day of reflection today; my Grandfather died last night and while it was a lovely sunny day, I didn't end up doing much. Late in the afternoon I went out for a walk on Hampstead Heath to get out of the house. Deep in thought about job hunting and my Pop, I was walking along until I saw a brilliant white kitten, no more that a year old, stalking something in the long grass, convinced that it was completely invisible, and doing that bum-wiggle/pouncing thing kittens do so well.

I sat down to watch it hoping not to scare it off, at which point it saw me, and came charging over to plonk itself down in my lap and started to purr, and we sat and watched the evening for a while. Cats are all good...

Idalee

Italy was great, was up in the mid 30s most of the time I was there, almost too hot, so we took a couple of days down at San Remo, sitting on the beach and eating way too much gelato. Fab's mother was trying her hardest to make sure we wouldn't fit through the plane door I think - I have never seen someone prepare so much food on a regular basis, or look so upset when we protested that we were full up - "You always say that" she'd berate us. In fact, the number one question people asked about me was not, 'How old?', 'What does she do?' or 'Does she speak Italian?' - it was 'Sei mangare?' - does she eat? To olympic standard normally, but apparently I only got a 6.0 from the Italian judge.

Tea is an international language

Back from Italy, which was lovely, and finally a chance to have some good coffee, absolutely shite in London! In the midst of my search for a small stovetop coffee maker to bring back home, I happened upon the attached item in a Bologna shop window. Guess what you're all getting for Christmas?

In case you can't tell, it's an automatic tea bag remover in the shape of a penguin, since, as I always say, nothing says perfectly made tea like a penguin. Note the presence of a 'precision timer" - this is no ordinary tea bag remover in the shape of a penguin but of course has been made by the Germans. A bargain at $50.