It was really hot here yesterday – 84 degrees! Which is just about unbearable to the Brits. In fact they have issued heat wave warnings, and all the papers have headlines like “Killer Heat Wave!!!” To be fair, air conditioning is pretty unusual here, especially in people’s homes, and only the really big office buildings have it (Michael has to suffer with just a fan and an open window).

So it was fantastic to go swimming. Unfortunately, the adult basketball they had listed in conjunction with the open swim was ladies only, so even though Michael went with me to get some exercise himself, not being a lady (at least not officially), he wasn’t allowed to play. And Michael sinks when he swims, so he volunteered to go run around in the parking lot while I swam.

The pool was pretty busy, but I got some good laps in, and it was fun to be floating around and not have all that weight on my joints and feet. It didn’t actually  feel so amazingly spectacular to be in the water, though it was very nice, but I really noticed the difference when I got out – I felt like a dinosaur trying to haul myself out of a tar pit before I turned into a fossil. I also made some friends based on the fact that I was apparently the only pregnant woman they had ever seen swimming. One guy from Kenya wanted to know all about why I was swimming, and had I been to Kenya, and what is Phoenix, Arizona like? The his French friend came over and wanted to show me how she could hold her breath under water… she was something like 25 years old. That type of behavior is cute when you’re 5, but 25? Anyway, it was a very fun evening, and since neither of us had to be in to work early this morning, we stayed up and had snacks and watched Heroes until midnight and then had a good, long sleep!