Everyday Life

The AJ Chronicles: 26 June 2026

Heatwave and exhaustion; work anniversary; cheap tyres; library experiences; driving to music again; cafe closure; Father's Day; recent Medium stories

Today’s indoor temperature (32.4 °C). One of my old tyres. Father’s Day cards and a bear-shaped balloon. Hanging out in an air-conditioned library. Author’s photos

Sections

i. Recent Moments

ii. Medium Stories

i. Recent Moments

1. Heatwave and exhaustion 🥵
2. Work anniversary 💾
3. Cheap tyres 🛞
4. Library experiences 📚
5. Driving to music again 🎵
6. Cafe closure 🍽️
7. Father’s Day 🧑‍🧒‍🧒

1. Heatwave and exhaustion 🥵

I live in England, and we’re experiencing a heatwave at the moment. Here in the north west, I’ve seen temperatures of around 33 °C (91.4 °F). Some parts of the UK have reached over 36 °C.

It has made me think of the summer of 1976. Was that really 50 years ago?!(I wrote something resembling a poem about that summer a few years ago. You can find it here.)

Despite having no air conditioning at home, I’ve managed to sleep most nights, even though I did wake up twenty times to turn over. However, yesterday was so hot that it was too much for me. The heat has completely sapped my energy!

When I went away last July, there was a very quiet fan in one of the hotel rooms. It was so quiet that I could sleep with it running. When I got home, I could not find the exact model, but a similar one cost over £70. Why oh why didn’t I take the chance and buy it?! 😆

My neighbours have one of those mobile air conditioners in their bedroom, and they’ve kindly placed the hot air vent pipe in the window closest to my bedroom. Luckily, I don’t feel any hot air coming in.

In the ’90s, I had one of those units, but it was too noisy to sleep with. I now have the noise of my neighbour’s unit, without the benefits of the cooling. At least the noise does not stop me from sleeping.

2. Work anniversary 💾

On Tuesday, it was the 40th anniversary of my starting work!

I went straight from college to work at a series of small companies, all owned or run by the same man for 20 years.

In the past, I wrote over 30 stories about that old workplace. I remember the weather being similarly hot in 1986, which helps remind me of those early days.

When I was away from Medium last year, I imported all those old workplace stories into Substack and improved them. I’ve still not got around to applying those changes to the Medium versions, which are still a little rough in places.

In case you’re interested in seeing the original versions, the series begins with part zero: Weird Workplace Stories 0: The Job Interview. (I added this piece after writing part 1, hence the unusual numbering.)

Related: Last week, I retraced my final college journey, and finally got around to writing about it here this week.

3. Cheap tyres were not great 🛞

Two years ago, to save money, I replaced my car’s premium brand front tyres (Continental Eco Contact 6) with budget ones (Kumho Ecsta PS71).

They had decent ratings online, but as soon as I pulled away in the wet, I knew I’d made a mistake in buying them. Still, what they lacked in wet grip, they made up for by being hard-wearing. After two years, there was still 4 or 5 mm of tread remaining.

Their performance in the wet was bad enough to start with, but they got worse over time. During recent rainy weather, they were almost comically bad — the car was all over the road.

I decided I’d had enough, so I replaced them.

I know that sounds extravagant — many people can’t justify replacing tyres with 2 or 3 years’ worth of life left in them. But I didn’t feel safe, and the car will grip much better on wet roads again.

I used Blackcircles, which had a tyre pod at my nearest supermarket — the same place I used two years ago.

When I arrived, the fitter was in a tiny office. He was six inches away from the computer screen he was peering at, and he was wearing two pairs of glasses, one on top of the other.

I’ve done that at home for extra magnification sometimes, when repairing small items. But I would not want to do that in public! I seem to remember him doing the same on my last visit.

I hoped he would be able to see well enough to work on the tyres! Thankfully, he seems to have done a good job again.

4. Library 📚

I often write in a Library about 7 miles from home. It’s usually spacious and comfortable. However, it lacks air conditioning, and there have frequently been noisy people there.

One day, a woman was writing on a pad of paper as though her life depended on it. At the same time, her phone emitted what sounded like a talk radio show. Perhaps she was transcribing the show; whatever she was doing, it was certainly annoying. If only headphones had been invented…

I remembered that the staff once said floor 1 was for quiet study, so I relocated there, and it was much more peaceful.

Another time, I went straight to the quiet floor. But it was very noisy that day, with people wandering back and forth asking the staff questions and making loud phone calls on speakerphone.

Right now, I’m writing this at a different library. It’s the ‘new’ one in my hometown that I didn’t like after its relocation a few years ago. (I wrote about it here.)

Today, though, it’s very quiet. But even better —

It has air conditioning! I wonder if I can sleep here? ❄️️🤣

5. Driving to music again 🎵

I’m gradually rediscovering the joy of driving to music. For the first 30 years of driving, it’s all I listened to in the car.

During the last ten years, I switched to podcasts instead. The trouble is, I will get behind on my podcast listening if I stop playing them in the car.

When I mentioned this topic in a comment on a recent music story, Lu Skerdoo suggested a good compromise: listen to music every other time. Why didn’t I think of that?

6. Cafe closure 🍽️

I went to a local cafe that is closing soon, hoping to say goodbye to one staff member in particular. I arrived too early and chatted with an elderly woman outside. She knew all the staff by first name, and seemed to know a lot about the closure.

Once inside, I managed to speak to the familiar staff member. Gingerly, I brought up the subject of the store closure. She said it had come as a terrible shock and still felt raw. Some people have worked there for 40 years, and the shop has been there over 100. It was clearly upsetting for them, so I changed the subject.

Sadly, when it was time for me to go, there was nobody at the counter, and I left without saying goodbye. I still don’t have a sense of closure about it, so I plan to pop in again next week; it’s not supposed to close for a little while longer.

Update: It looks like I’m too late to visit the cafe one more time. When I got home from the library, just before publishing this piece, I had received a letter about the shop. Sadly, they’ve already closed and will reopen briefly for a closing-down sale in July. I don’t imagine the cafe will reopen during the sale.

7. Father’s Day 🧑‍🧒‍🧒

I still live close to where I grew up. On Sunday morning, I cycled past the bungalow I lived in with my parents until age 11. (There are some photos of it in this old story.)

I also cycled past their first home, which I never lived in — I think I was ‘on the way’ when they moved! Surprisingly, I noticed something I had never spotted before: My parents’ old house was a unique building on that road.

Most properties on that road are bungalows. There is also a large detached house that used to belong to the church; maybe it still does. Then there are a few houses with hip roofs. In between is the house my parents bought brand new in 1955 — and it is the only one with a gable roof.

That short bike ride was my little way of remembering my dad on Father’s Day.

A couple of hours later, I had a nice lunch with my youngest son, Stephanie, and her daughter. They also gave me cards and gifts. (My eldest son was working.)

Until next time ☕️

It’s been a slightly unusual week, partly because of the weather, and partly because I drove Stephanie and her mum to an out-of-town hospital for tests. (Stephanie would have taken her mum if it weren’t for the tricky route involved.)

Somehow, despite the heat, I’ve at least managed to do some writing.

I hope the weather is okay wherever you are. And if you have air conditioning, please post me a box of cold air!

© 2026 AJ. All rights reserved.

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ii. Medium Stories

🔗 The titles below are links to my recent Medium stories.

This week, I published two new Medium stories, and imported one from Substack.

My Favourite Summer Song of 2025 and 2026

Stevie & Sly by Young Gun Silver Fox is at my top spot for two summers in a row

Last summer, I was not active on Medium or Substack, so I didn’t get to share the details of a song I liked.

I’ve finally put that right with this piece.

Retracing My Final College Journey, 40 Years Later

I returned to Wigan, this time enjoying the sunshine and a nostalgic walk through my past

Long-time readers might think they’ve seen this story before. That’s because I wrote about the 40th anniversary of my starting college in 2024. This time, it’s the anniversary of my leaving.

While there are many similarities between the pieces, there are plenty of differences, too. One thing that helped was going by car instead of train. My college train journey was a very memorable part of the experience, which featured prominently in the earlier story.

(You can find the older story here.)

Car Memories: Ford Fiesta XR2 (1982) — Owned 1989–1991

The Mk1 Ford Fiesta XR2 was my first performance car, and it’s still one of my all-time favourites

(New to Medium.)

This is another step towards having enough Ford Fiesta stories to write a 50th anniversary piece that ties them all together.

(Still to come: Mk2 Fiesta XR2 and Mk6 Fiesta ST150.)

This edition of The AJ Chronicles was first published on Substack, then Medium.