Hot Hot Heat

This is not a post to extol the virtues of the Miami Heat. Despite LeBron James' return to championship winning form this is not about him. Nor is it about Dwayne Wade. Don't get me wrong, I like basketball and can still name the great Chicago Bulls starting line-up from the multiple title wining era. (Man that era was great. Jordan, Magic, Gary Payton, Stockton and Malone. *sniff, getting misty-eyed here*)

Even though I like basketball, this is still not about the Miami Heat, (the Spurs were damned close though). 

This is not about Death Valley and wildfires in California. It could be but it isn't about Mr Heat Mechanical Inc. in the Toronto Area. (Go here for more information and reviews)

No no no no no.

This is about summer and its final and dramatic arrival in Paris, neatly coinciding with the Tour de France. 

On a side note, I love the Tour de France. and is the reason that I haven't been writing. I have been obsessed, consumed and delirious with Tour de France fever. I am every year. I love it. I go almost every year to the Champs Elysees to watch the champagne stage. They go faster than italics. They really do go quite incredibly quickly. Naturally, they slow down for corners but they can hold an average speed of 55kmh through a TT stage. That means more than 60kmh on the flat. On the TTT, Team Sky were shown going at about 65kmh. If you are not obsessed by le Tour like I am, you should be. On the 14th July, the remaining riders will climb the Mont Ventoux. It will be Bastille Day, (the French just call it Fête Nationale) all the French riders will be going bonkers to win as there is nothing more glorious than winning atop a mountain, nothing more worthy than doing in the Tour de France and worth dying for to do that on the 14th July. The fact that the Mont Ventoux is iconic just adds to the insanity. Well, actually what adds most to the sanity is that on a cold, windy, bald headed mountain in the middle of nowhere, 500,000 spectators will line the road to cheer the cyclists on. If you only watch one day of the tour, watch that one. (If any/all of that went over your head, try this)

I digress. 

I have been writing and I have finished another couple of chapters but once again I have ground to a halt. It's the heat. I don't deal well with heat, even on the best of occasions. The fact that I write on crowded trains, each one spending the day pushing its metal and glass form through the hatred of the sun, means that I write in a furnace. The sweat drips off my brow and onto my page and I can't bear it. So I have stopped writing again. I will try again tomorrow morning. Perhaps the train will not have heated up too much as it will be early in the morning. I doubt it. Nevertheless, I shall try. There are so many things that rip me from my writing bubble. I wish I could write gently and fluidly. I can't, it's like kicking myself in the armpit every other step. Monty Python would be proud.

Yours, sweatily 

DR

P.S. I haven't changed my bag. This is not the best of circumstances I know but the bag is required for my day job. I don't know what to do about it. Answers on a postcard.