A Scorcher.

With an official temperature of 23C/74F it really has been a scorcher of a day.

Having made sure I didn't need to do any food shopping for a week and more I still had to go into town to pay a couple of bills at the bank. Otherwise they would have had to wait until after the Easter weekend and Bank Holiday. One bill was quite large and the other relatively small but the recipient of the smaller payment acknowledged with thanks straight away. It might have just been good manners or relief at cash in the bank. Here I was the only customer in the bank in my robber's outfit. I thought my totally dark 'insect eyes' sunglasses might be overdoing things so as can be seen on this inadvertent selfie I wore lightly silvered ones which I bought to protect my eyes from strong winds. 

Peter asked me to get a white cabbage and some potatoes while I was in town. Instead of going to any of the supermarkets on the High Street I went round to an independent greengrocer. The two sticks in the middle of the photo each had an ice-cream tub attached, one for cash and one with a card reader which I thought was a clever way to maintain social distancing. 

Butchers' Row was completely deserted. A fancy delicatessen was open and in another two workmen were refurbishing the shop but that was it. With the 'Exit' doorway from M&S being by the cattle market car park where the car was I thought I'd mooch through the food hall and maybe get something special for Easter. However when I entered from the High Street entrance I realised I had joined a long queue of people waiting to do their food shopping. With the clothing sections barricaded off from the central walkway my only way out was down the queue, through the food hall and past the tills. This I did quickly trying to keep away from other people but I wonder if any of them thought I was jumping the queue. At least I wasn't breathing any germs over them.   

The weather was so lovely that after cutting out the fabric for a grey mask I took it outside and sewed by hand. It felt very hot and when I came back inside the marble tiles were refreshingly cool against my bare feet. Not so nice was the sting of sunscreen and sweat dripping into my eyes. Another not nice event was the discovery that yet again somebody has stolen my brown recycling bag. I only got it last week and yesterday I made sure to write the house number very clearly on both sides. I don't think it is a case of the bin men putting it back in the wrong recycling box as I checked any boxes that hadn't been collected and my 'missing' bags never reappear. We do have our suspicions as to which household is finding these bags very useful for another purpose. In the meantime I better check that my recycling boxes have dried after being washed and can be put away.