Lock-down Day 279

Not the best of nights - just too hot and humid for comfort! I woke up a few times, simply because I was hot. Too hot and sticky. Not much I can do, even though the ceiling fan stays on all night. At least we didn't have load shedding during the night.

We will, however, enjoy load shedding tonight! Stage 2 is scheduled to come into effect at ten tonight! I suppose my best plan would be to be asleep before ten ... and hope! Sigh ...

Well, today my big mission is to bake cookies! I haven't been able to decide on the number of batches to make, as I want to be sure to have a batch ready for baking every weekend. It took a while to realise that I don't actually have to finish ALL batches today! It's not weekend, it's holiday! I can do two batches today, see how far that gets me, and do more tomorrow, if needed! On weekends, I have only one day. With the 'time to reach room temperature' plus the time it needs to refrigerate, I need a day. And with the rest of the weekend chores, on weekends, I only have on chance.

Anyway, margarine and eggs are out, reaching room temperature. While I waited for that, I mowed the back lawn.

Right, both batches are now in the fridge. I feel as if I've done hard labour! The kitchen is so hot! Oh, I also didn't get the dough quite right ... the recipe calls for 225 gram chocolate chips. I did that with the first dough - but it didn't look the same. So I figured that I must have used chocolate powder instead of chips. So, I tried that with the second batch. Only ... it was much too dry! I ended up adding milk and oil to get it into dough! I suppose that I used much less powder in the past ... I had the actual recipe open online, when I first experimented. I wish I had written down what I'd done! Silly of me to rely on my memory! Ah, well ... I'll see how each batch turns out ...

I was about to start pulling those prickly weeds, when I saw Smeagol in the car port. So, I filled his bowl ... then re-filled mippies' dispenser as well.

My peaches have been dropping off the tree for the past couple of days now. They are nowhere near mature, yet, they are still green! I've just looked up possible reasons: excessive heat, high humidity ... sigh. Nothing I can do about it.

I tried outside ... it is much too hot! Never mind, 'for comfort' - it really is too hot! The lounge is relatively cool - and that is 35 degrees Celsius! Even the shade outside is too hot! I did pull a lot of prickly weeds, and found Smeagol had retreated into the relatively cool outside room! Three mips are sprawled around inside ... I eventually found Mewthos outside.

I also have my towels in the washing machine, pre-wash with bleach, wash hot, now drying. I should also take the two loads I washed yesterday, down. Maybe later ...

It's actually so hot, that I doubt I will have to worry about these watery weeds for much longer - they are already wilting. When weeds wilt ... that's REALLY hot! When indigenous weeds wilt? Not normal.

I've been making myself ... oh, what do you call the milkshakes without milk? I use frozen fruit and aloe juice. Very refreshing in this heat! I had watermelon and now I'm using frozen orange juice.

I'm just glad I cleaned the bin & drawer yesterday, because today it really is much too hot to do anything! Sigh ...

I'm also quite hungry, so I've made myself a pasta tuna salad. The cooking was a bit ... unpleasant ... now I'm cooling it down.

Great! Heavy rainfall predicted in every province ... except Gauteng. Oh, we should see some rain, as well, just not very much. Well, having had to stay at home due to flooding last year - I suppose that's a relief. Rains is predicted for Friday ... 

That kind of sucks, doesn't it? Can't garden, can't do much indoors ... I'm forced to relax! What hell is this?

Just got a message that my order would be delivered tomorrow! Sigh ... but at least I can re-schedule. Monday.

I hear thunder outside, time to look for Mewthos! Turns out, he likes to hide in the dog house! At least, now I know where to find him. He's in his play room now - which is nice and cool!

Just got a call from the manager here, wanting to make sure I've got water. I told him, if I hadn't, he would have heard from me long ago! Ha Ha! Next I get a 'please call me' from the guard - same question, same answer.

With another thunderstorm on the way, it might be a good idea to shower early ... I don't want to be showering while there's lightning. On the other hand, the later I shower, the better I sleep ...

Half past six, time for a family quality meeting before I bring in mippies!

Mewthos has been behaving 'off' lately. I'm thinking it must be the high humidity. He flops down in the spare room, then mewls for me to come to him ... but won't stay in my bedroom, on my bed. Poor boy.

Well, I'm just flopping on the bed, myself ... let's hope for a good night!