Bake in foil

It is 34 degrees today!

That would be okay if I were by a pool, my needs being tended to by waiters carrying trays of icecream sundaes and refreshing cocktails. It is not quite so comfortable when you live in an apartment that has lots of large windows and no natural shade.

To try to keep out some of the heat I have covered the windows in baking foil. I expect I probably looked quite odd to the people working in the office block opposite, as I was taping up strips of foil, but I'd rather lose my dignity than my cool.


PS - the fridge freezer got fixed last week, so I have a stock of Magnum lollies at my disposal if my foil plan turns out to be a folly.

Englishmen in the midday sun

It's been very, very hot this week and the freezer remains broken (hopefully to be fixed in 8 days time). With no ice lollies to keep us cool the heat seems to be affecting our brains...

April has created an imaginary friend. This friend is called 'Pae-ya!' (always said with exclamation) and is, apparently, sometimes cuboid, sometimes pyramid-shaped, with blonde hair and a green face.

Yesterday we received polling cards allowing us to vote in the upcoming election for the mayor of Cologne. There are five candidates to choose from. I know nothing about politics in Cologne so I was initially concerned by this unexpected responsibility. However, the worry was taken away when Alexander ate the polling card and regurgitated it in bits.

It is wasp season and the little bu$$ers are thriving. When they go near April and Alexander I have to try to hide my panic and claim 'There's nothing to worry about!' while doing a crazy mad woman jig to flick them (the wasps, not the children) away.

Simon has found an ingenious way to deal with wasps: a vacuum cleaner. Here he is doing a bit of light 'wasp extermination' yesterday afternoon (al fresco).