"It ain't half hot, mum!"

Today the temperature has topped 30 degrees Celsius - the hottest day of the year. And as I'm well on the way to full health it's great to be alive to enjoy this fabulous sunshine. It's the finals day of Henley Regatta too. Last night was firework night where I usually take a small group of friends on my boat to moor on the booms and watch the spectacle. But as I'm still not quite fit enough to handle the boat we could only listen to the fireworks from afar. Nevertheless on Friday eight of us met up for a great day at Phyllis Court. The day started by picking up Paul and Debbie at their riverside home in Wargrave. My young friend took this picture.


As we walked over the humped back bridge to enter the grounds of the club picnickers were setting up their tables and chairs. This is a view looking down the creek from the bridge.
To get the best view of the course I'd reserved the 8 deck chairs nearest the winning post from which we could see all the different craft as they glided by - from 'Southern Comfort' to some sort of weird fun filled raft.














This is 'Janthea' one of the famous 'little boats' which came to our rescue during the Dunkirk evacuation at the beginning of World War Two


And 'Alaska' the beautiful steam launch that carried the Queen to her Diamond Jubilee celebrations in Henley last summer.


Looking towards Leander Club at the end of the course I can see the Queen's barge 'Gloriana' which has been moored there for the past week. At 4 o'clock this afternoon a whole bevy of Olympic oarsmen and women will row the barge down the course in front of the thousands lining the riverbanks. I'll show you the view from my chair and then zoom in to the gold of the boat.





We all met up on the lawns in front of the verandah and sipped Pimms. (I had to content myself with ginger beer as the vast amounts of pain killers I'm still on won't allow alcohol! Drat it as Henley regatta IS Pimms!) Here's Paul solving the world's problems


And Brian with Debbie


Jane and Anne-Marie


After the Pimms were consumed we made our way to the dining room for a sumptuous lunch before promenading around a bit before returning to our cool and shady chairs by the river's edge. What a lovely day - a perfect English afternoon.
I'm now going to put my iPad down for a while as I watch the men's final at Wimbledon on television. And the commentator has just announced that the temperature on the centre court has reached the forties! Wow.
The match is still going on but if I don't finish writing this today I'll not post the blog for a while as things are very busy at the moment. My young friend has just bought her very first house so we've been spending the past two days packing countless boxes. The removal men are coming tomorrow. I've grown a real liking for B&Q as we've visited the store quite a few times lately. What a helpful lot of people they are there.
On Wednesday I have an early appointment in London for a consultation with my surgeon, Mr Ladas. Crossing everything that all is OK and I don't need any further treatment I'll sign off now.