What a dismal day it is – grey, dark, cold and wet. Yes that sums up a normal summer August day in London. One of the girls at work got engaged over the weekend, so she’s gushing at everyone at the moment, which is weird because she’s not the girliest of girls. I want to teach her how to walk like a lady rather than a frump. People seem to be getting married, dropping babies and buying houses here, there and everywhere lately, like that’s all there is to life. Well I supposed that is the route to creating life.

This weekend has been quite interesting. My dad has returned from doing his mini-Hajj at Mecca. All week I had been edgy as I had expected him to return super-religious and changing our lives forever. So far this has not happened, but I’m holding my breath. We went to the airport on Saturday afternoon to pick him up. Walking to Terminal 3 from the car park was like walking through the news, a sea of stranded people with trolley-loads of luggage just waiting out in the cold, it was such a sad scene, all they wanted to do was go on holiday or go home. There was a huge white tent with people inside sheltering, I think there was food in there. I’m just glad I didn’t have to go through that. We waited for dad for about 2 hours because there were severe delays in the baggage claim area. And then Zu found Dad with a bandage over his foot, because he had burnt it, the ground was so hot over there. I can’t even imagine what the heat must have been like. I was glad to get home and snuggle under my duvet.

The next day felt like God was angry, the scariest thunder and lightning you would ever have heard and the heaviest rain, all the drains were over-flowing and our driveway was flooded. Angie and I had just got back from shopping in Slough, from which we came back empty-handed. We saw an accident on the way back, a bus had hit the back of a car and the front window was smashed. There were police cars and an ambulance. We were stuck because the road was blocked and then a fire engine came which blocked the road even more. In the end the cars had to drive over the grass! I’m going to check the weather forecast now to see if we will ever get any sunshine back. Fingers crossed!