Wednesday 6 August 2003

Phew what a scorcher!
Has the tarmac melted yet?

Remember the summer of 76? My defining memory of that particular heatwave was the time we went as a family for a picnic to Regent's Park. Walking across the road on the way to the inner circle my mum's flip flops got stuck in the melted tarmac and broke (in those days there were only cheap flip flops - mostly used on the beach - remember the ones? flat sort of spongy stuff with plastic thong bits held onto the base by a circular thingy on the bottom - always came in red, green or blue - my dad came back from the USA with a fabulous pair which were thicker black spongy stuff with rainbow stripped material thongy bit!). The flat bit stayed glued to the road and the plastic thong bit was pulled through. I remember laughing but I can't remember what she did about walking around without shoes or whether she appreciated being the butt of a joke (probably not).

Mum's shoes are quite prominent in my memory of childhood - there was the time when my sister got spanked for being naughty and went off to find Mum's favourite suede sandshoes, and flushed one down the toilet (quite bold for a 3 year old I thought). She also had a great pair of navy blue high heels with lots of straps that she wore to go out in and at the end of the night she would have navy stripes on her feet (very amusing for a kid).

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