Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it.

And so, after some miserable months and recent weeks of rain, we finally got it! A few hot summer days!! Lucky you out there who live in place where you have proper, hot, predictable summers. Here, in the UK, we are lucky if it doesn't rain at the weekend. And I always find this funny, that knowing this and living in those conditions all their lives, people here still act surprised when it rains ;-)

(Sorry if I sound all superior here, but if there's one thing English people know how to cope with, it's rain. Sure, those, so typically English green fields look pretty when you're looking out of the window of a plane, but once you've landed, you'll soon discover exactly WHY everything is so green. So while the slightest glimpse of sunshine sends the English folk into a frenzy of suntan lotions, rolled up trouser legs and lunchtime sunburns, it is the rain that we're really comfortable with.)

Anyway, last weekend was HOT! And you could immediately experience the beauty of a British summer at midday at Tesco - packed, instead of laying on the beach, everyone is queuing up at the tills, buying bags of ice-cubes, boxes of beer, gallons of lemonade and tons of suntan lotion bottles. Rushing through the supermarket aisles, quickly not to miss out on this glimpse of sunshine. To later enjoy it from the inside of their cars lined up from the parking to the exit and all the way to the beach. You know it's summer when it takes you more than an hour to get to the sea-front, the journey that normally takes you 10-15 minutes. 

Soon after you start hearing the typical noises of the British summer - kids laughing whilst they play in garden inflatable swimming pools (come on! who would waste money in the UK and invest in an outdoor pool, that they going to use for a few days of the year!?). You can smell the barbecued meat, the cling of beer, Pimm’s and lemonade glasses and most of all, you can really feel it - the summer is finally here. Good things happen to those who wait!

And so, on Saturday after sending off my little one with her dad to the Sea Life Centre in Brighton and cleaning the whole house, I have prepared the Biryani Chicken with Cucumber Raita, went shopping (yes, I was one of those, yet there's no beach for busy mums), Sunday prepared the bread dough for the burger rolls, the homemade burgers, and cool fruit salad with some minted sugar.

And thinking I'm going to rest on Monday, I have unexpectedly ended up hosting 3 hungry kids and their mums over for a lunch in my garden. Quick.. quick.. What should we have? Oh, my best friend, my saviour, my darling Thermie - thank you for helping me :) Together, in few minutes we had a "Cheater's Pizza" in the oven, cold lemonade in a jar and some fruit coctails for the kids. And the sandpit, inflatable swimming pool, pop up train-shaped tents for the kids, the parasol on, and in a lovely company I have spend my last (for a while at least) free Monday, before I go back to work full time next week (for 2 days only before I board a silver plane and take off on holidays, that is!!)