poliphilo: (corinium)
poliphilo ([personal profile] poliphilo) wrote2013-07-15 10:24 am

Coping With The Heat

This run of hot weather makes me think of the summer of '76. If there's been anything like it in the years between I've forgotten.

Ailz and I were in Rochester yesterday. I'd never walked down the High Street before. There are Dickensian associations everywhere. Here's John Jasper's gatehouse. There's the shop that claims to be Uncle Pumblechook's. Here's the 16th century charitable foundation called The Six Poor Travellers that inspired a collection of Christmas stories. On our way home we stopped at Cobham and had afternoon tea at The Leather Bottle which features in The Pickwick Papers.

We cancelled a meeting with my godmother (my mother's old army pal) which we had booked for this afternoon. No-one fancied a jolly in this heat.

[identity profile] veronica-milvus.livejournal.com 2013-07-15 09:27 am (UTC)(link)
1995 and 2003 were proper roasting summers.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2013-07-15 09:31 am (UTC)(link)
'76 has stuck in my mind because it was my first summer in Manchester. I was expecting the kind of weather you find in Lowry's paintings and I got a heatwave.

[identity profile] cmcmck.livejournal.com 2013-07-15 10:43 am (UTC)(link)
It doesn't just claim as some shops in the High Street do. What it now Elizabeth's Restaurant (very good, btw) is the very building Dickens had in mind for Uncle Pumblechook's premises- a very fine run of Tudor buildings that.

Rochester was Dickens' Cloisterham.

Do you have a look inside the Travellers? It's an amazing interior.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2013-07-15 03:50 pm (UTC)(link)
I didn't realize the Travellers was open to the public. I'll try and get inside next time we visit.

[identity profile] halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com 2013-07-15 12:08 pm (UTC)(link)
HOw warm is it? I truly sympathize since it's going to be upper 80's or low 90's all week. Stay cool and drink alot of water!

[identity profile] cmcmck.livejournal.com 2013-07-15 01:17 pm (UTC)(link)
28-30c here in the county of Kent (deep southeastern UK) where [livejournal.com profile] poliphilo is referring to and where I live- and that is hot for these parts

[identity profile] halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com 2013-07-15 01:23 pm (UTC)(link)
You're about ten degrees cooler than we are.

Whew!

[identity profile] cmcmck.livejournal.com 2013-07-15 01:34 pm (UTC)(link)
At least there's no humidity to speak of.

I think people sometimes forget just how far north and west the UK is. We're not used to this! :o)

[identity profile] halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com 2013-07-15 01:36 pm (UTC)(link)
I know. You guys have no a/c to speak of.

Stay cool as you can, dearie!

[identity profile] ooxc.livejournal.com 2013-07-15 05:33 pm (UTC)(link)
76 was amazing - it went on for weeks and weeks, and there were huge cracks across the parks It was hot at night too. At least, we're getting cool nights and misty mornings here
90 was the year when a milk shake and orange juice went bad/fermented in the ten minutes I queued for a coach
95 was hot, yes, but not so hot or for so long as 76

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2013-07-15 06:13 pm (UTC)(link)
76 was my first year as a curate in Manchester. I'd been expecting mean streets and grey skies and what I got was rather different.

[identity profile] cmcmck.livejournal.com 2013-07-16 11:08 am (UTC)(link)
I was still in Brugge in 75. That and the following two were all glorious summers although you may remember that I wrote a poem a while back about a thunderstorm I experienced there. :o)