Sizzling

Perhaps the biggest surprise of London's week in the Sun - bigger than Andy Murray losing at Wimbledon, bigger than the girls at work getting sunburned at lunchtime and then expressing surprise themselves because "we're not on holiday or anything", bigger even than Tim Henman's reasoned analysis of Michael Jackson's "status in pop history" - is that the trains didn't have the central heating on. As I have observed before, the heating on the trains seems to follow a calender all of its own, not bothering much in the colder months of Winter, puffing away enthusiastically in Spring and generally achieving peak performance sometime in May. With such an idiosyncratic sense of timing, I went into this week half expecting the trains to be full of hot air during my commute. But happily common sense seems to have prevailed - or perhaps the heating just broek down. Not that it hasn't been hot on the train. It most certainly has. Due to a couple of important business engagements, I've actually had to wear suits a couple of times this week, and let me tell you it was not pleasant.

Actually I avoided day one of the big scorcher, by going to Wigan on Monday. I hadn't ever been before, so that's one to cross off the list. I was half-tempted to follow the road to Wigan Pier, but there was traffic queueing to get on to the roudabout so I went to Skelmerdale instead. On Wednesday I had arrnged to go to Olympia for a trade show, so I had to put the suit on again along with the shoes that make a funny noise when I walk. It was uneventful, as these things go. Why are all these big conference venues so hard to get to? You could travel to the Midlands in not much longer than it takes to get from Marylebone to Kensington. And for Kensington High Street, one of the most fashionable and, let's face it, pricey, retail areas of London solely dependent on the District Line is surely someone's idea of a bad joke.

I decided on the way back across town to avoid the Tube, mindful of media speculation about the brain-meltingly high temperatures it might reach. I got on a bus, and what an interesting journey it proved. I went and sat up top, and settled down for an hour-long journey across London, passing Harrods, Harvey Nicks, the Albert Hall, Hyde Park, Marble Arch and Oxford Street, with the result that I now know WHY it takes so long to get to Kensington - it's really quite a long way. I had always put it down to the inefficiency of the transport network. I did manage to pick the only seat on the top level on to which the Sun shone directly, which was a shame and didn't do much for my perspiration levels. But at least that meant that, when I did get on the train home, people seemed not to want to crowd me.

It's been so hot this week that I even resorted to wearing a pair of shorts on Thursday. I'm not really one for hot weather, although after last Summer's gloom it has been a nice change. But can we got back to dull and overcast with occasional Sunny spells now, please?