I ordered this a while ago - it is "Where Stitchers Gather" from Victoria Sampler, and I had started to get quite worried about where it was, but finally a card from the Post Office turned up and I went to get it yesterday afternoon.

In fact I left work at 4pm, unheard of, I know, and walked to the main Post Office, which is only about 10 minutes away, then back home, with the parcel, which also contained a large frame with clips, and of course I was bathed in sweat by the time I got back to the hotel. I went for a quick swim, I am getting to be a much better swimmer now, and cooled down considerably. Despite the fact that all the other people in the pool were youths and girls who were sitting on the side with cigarettes, and periodically plunging in (fortunately without cigarettes) and making a huge mess. Then I slept for an hour or so and felt much better after that.

It really is too hot here at present, well over 40 degrees, with sun that you can feel burning the skin. I hope to be able to escape to the pool again this afternoon, especially as I have not got a lot to do at present. Of course I keep on brooding about this new group and thinking of reasons why I don't want to be in it. And making lists of what I want if I have to be - with various helpful suggestions from David, mostly related to unlimited availability of hot men, honestly you would never think he was a perfectly respectable married man with two practically grown-up children! To distract myself from all of this, I have read practically every message on Ravelry, plus I am extremely well-informed on all sorts of current events.

Of course I am very enthusiastic about going home early, having a swim, a sleep and doing some stitching! I'm not normally this slack about work and other obligations, but really the heat here is far too much, it's the sort of heat when French people - who (very often) think the heat is wonderful, overdress and rush about like mad things in full sun with no hats or sunblock - drop dead. It does happen occasionally here, would you believe there are still people in France who do not use sunblock because they think a tan is healthy? And I have with my own eyes seen a Frenchman faint in the aisle of a Cyprus Airways plane when he boarded in Larnaca, wearing a padded jacket in the height of summer... given that you have a bus ride out to the plane and then climb steps in this heat, it is no wonder.