How to feel virtuous with a beef jerky wrapper stuck to your face

Currently house sitting at Tam and Stephen’s while they are holidaying in Egypt . It is apparently 45 degrees in Egypt . It is summer here and we are languishing in temperatures of 17. It doesn’t seem fair.

I have been hot exactly twice since arriving in this land. Once was due to a lack of appropriate socks (I had to wear my thermal socks to a gym class – sweaty feet much?) and the other time was an incident involving a large amount of wine, a subsequent lack of hand / eye coordination and a dodgy thermostat. I woke in a cold sweat after temperatures in my bedroom approached those akin to the surface of the sun.

We have had some glorious days of late, but as it is so hit and miss I have had to cultivate a number of indoor pursuits – so far limited to playing scrabble on my DTS (high score of 437, if you don't mind), procrastinating about learning the cello, and watching films that Simon has already seen but insists I watch (in a type of cinematic solitary confinement). Simon was brought up with bizarre weather conditions. In Brisbane , if it’s sunny in the morning chances are it will still be that way come 5pm. In Cornwall , you can count on nothing. As a result, Simon had a lot of ‘indoor’ days as a young ‘un spent watching every movie ever made. And now he is ‘educating’ me. I have seen more Michael Caine movies, Westerns and fantasy flicks with v bad special effects (Jason and the Argonauts – I’m talking to you) in the last year than in the rest of my life combined.

Stephen and Tam have SKY and this weekend I discovered the delights of Cougar Town . Simon wanted to watch Sons of Anarchy (like Sopranos on motor bikes) but we flipped a coin and I was victorious. Cougar Town is ‘turn your brain off’ brilliant. Those who know me will realise that my behaviour is generally so appalling that I very infrequently take the moral high ground (but oh, how I love it when I can!). This show features women behaving so badly that I can finish off half a bottle of champers while watching (before falling asleep on the couch), wake up with a beef jerky wrapper stuck to my face, and still feel virtuous! I highly recommend.