The big news of today is that we had a phone call at about 10.00 a.m. to say that the part for our air conditioner had arrived and they had a technician free, would we like him to come out – so we said ‘yes’ very enthusiastically. Today was predicted to be 36 degrees, although the morning was quite bearable with a coolish easterly breeze. R2D2, my nickname for our little evaporative cooler, was retired to the patio at about 11.15 a.m.

A consequence of Stephen’s condition was that I had to take the car and drop it off for a service this morning. I tried Bentley Plaza for a device that tells the date and day as well as the time, but couldn’t find anything there. We plan to go to pick up the car together together (fortunately the RAC service centre is on Albany Highway so we have lots of possibilities of buses to get there and back as needed). Stephen will come with me to pick up the car and help with shopping. I was about to go out, then realised that we have entered the hottest part of the day. We hadn’t quite realised as we spent the afternoon in glorious cool air-conditioning. It seems essential in our climate, just as having heating in winter seems essential in Europe. But, not everyone has it, of course.