Very late this week, but hey, I never promised an SLA on these weeknotes.

Starmer quit as prime minister – or, more accurately, announced his intention to do so – having apparently realised several months later than the rest of the country that he wasn’t going to make it anywhere near the next election. I know there’s no great talent pool in the parliamentary Labour party to draw from, but I still I don’t feel great about the fact that the next PM-designate is just being shooed in based on a kind of media blitz, or that he’s now beholden to an electorate in a reactionary constituency.

In the early hours of Wednesday we were woken by a biblical thunderstorm, and both sat bolt upright when a deafening thunderclap hit close by, setting off car alarms.

I later found out exactly how close it hit: a house about 400 m away, where it destroyed their TV and burnt a toilet roll. Despite this, both building and occupants were unharmed.

It was horribly hot all week. On Tuesday, I closed the curtains and shutters all day and arrived home to a house that was only 27 C and felt cool compared to 34 C outside. Closing off the heat from the outside does work to an extent. If we had some of those external shutters you find on old French houses, it would be even better.

We watched Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the cinema via National Theatre Live. It’s the first time I’ve watched one. It’s much cheaper than the theatre, and whilst it lacks a certain feeling that you get when something is happening in front of you, you’re closer to the action and the view is better.

Lesley Manville and Aiden Turner were great in the lead roles; Turner was especially menacing and venal, I thought. I loved the dance interludes at scene changes and the opulent costumes.

We watched it at Peckhamplex on a hot evening, and that cinema doesn’t have air conditioning. However, the cavelike proporties of the car park structure kept the temperature pleasantly cool inside.

As we emerged into the heat of the evening we were greeted by a row of fire engines on Rye Lane. A stockroom on the first floor behind Khan’s Bargains caught fire – refrigerators overheated in the weather, I heard – but it was contained and the damage was minimal.

I’d already planned to spend Friday in Brighton and go to a concert in the evening, and it was an ideal day to escape the city. Brighton was much cooler and overcast, at least until the early evening, and I felt a bit chilly in my shorts at times. I sat on a foggy beach and had never been happier for such weather.

Brighton beach; the tourist tower disappears into the fog, but people are still sitting around enjoying their days out.

Brighton beach: gloomy, foggy, pebbly, gorgeous

I walked to Kemptown to sit and read in a pub (The Well on St George’s Road, a lovely little bar that feels like a sitting room) before the gig, then strolled up the street to join a massive queue to get into the church that was the venue for the evening.

The reason I’d gone to Brighton was that after the Mandalakia gig the previous week, talking to the singer, who also sings with Idrîsî Ensemble, I mentioned that I’d missed out on tickets to see the latter. “We’ve just announced a gig on the 26th,” she told me. At home, I checked, but that gig was already almost sold out, with the only remaining seats having a restricted view but still being quite expensive. However, I saw that they were playing Brighton the previous evening. L— already had plans, and I had the day free, so I decided to take a day trip to Brighton and bought a ticket.

Idrîsî Ensemble played in a small group of singers, variously accompanied by vielle, a small portative organ, and hurdy-gurdy. The programme, Trinity & Quadrivium, was inspired by Hildegard von Bingen, the Sibyl of the Rhine, the first Renaissance Woman before there were any Renaissance Men, and comprised Latin, Corsican, Occitan, and French pieces from the 12th to 14th centuries.

It was excellent, and I highly recommend them to anyone who enjoys early music.

After a quick dinner at the new outpost of Tofu Vegan in the Lanes – fish-fragrant aubergine and rice, if you’re interested – I caught the air-conditioned Thameslink back to London. The Jubilee Line was two stops of actual sauna temperatures, and it was another night of sleeping on top of the bed, but at least I experienced a bit of cool during the day.

L— ate something dodgy on Friday while I was in Brighton – we suspect B. cereus from rice in a sushi roll – and ended up with food poisoning that left her lying abed feeling sorry for herself for the whole weekend. She’s mostly recovered now.

Have you ever wondered what happens if you heat up a skillet that is sitting on a cork mat on top of an induction hob?

It works almost as usual, but the mat does get a bit scorched on the pan side.

It wasn’t an intentional experiment, but at least nothing bad happened. I only heated it up to warm some flatbreads, so it wasn’t running particularly hot or particularly long.