Colm O'Regan: An IKEA expedition when you are filling an empty house is the toughest

Before you know it, you’re asking ‘how are we for tea-lights?’ and you’re horsing the candle-slabs into the trolley.

We went to IKEA for the shade. Not a lampshade, just an absence of ultraviolet light. I’ve never had an IKEA trip like it. Just going to get in out of the heat.

We were at the Coping Stage of the Heatwave by this time. This is where the euphoria has passed. The realisation had set in that it was here for a while and we do not need to rotisserie ourselves. And the further awareness that 30-degree heat might be a bad thing if you’re trying to work or mind children -as opposed to lying back and sending photos of your feet and bottles of San Miguel from your holidays in Santa Del Espagna to the lads in the WhatsApp. Heatwaves are like visitors. You realise your house isn’t set up for them and you get your fill pretty quick. And the heatwave might be part of climate change -the kind of visitor who arrives in the middle of The Soaps and shows no sign of leaving ever.