And when the heavens opened.....

....there is something really pleasant about lying in bed, under a duvet, listening to the rain hammering on the window. (That is until you realise that it is 5am and you still have to get up in the dark!)

This morning was one such morning.....opening the curtains to see the rain scything down under the flourescent street lights, forming huge puddles (or more accurately olympic size swimming pools in the gutters!) and knowing that in a few minutes you will be out in that deluge!

I really like being out in the rain (I'm sure it is a flash back to childhood.....jumping in puddles whilst wearing wellies) but at that time in the morning with the whole day ahead of you it is less pleasant. Somewhat soggy I arrived at the station, and found everyone huddling under the shelters, rather than the usual scrum at the doors so of course I joined them.

Imaging my pleasure to arrive in Manchester to be greeted by beautiful blue skies and a bright sun such that the sunglasses came out for the first time since France.....unfortunately this lasted until lunchtime when the heavens opened in the West too.

By home time the streets were awash, and visibility was down to about 20 feet due to the rain bouncing back up off the pavement. As I said I love the rain, and when you know you are leaving work I really don't mind getting wet. I can never understand people cowering in doorways, making dashes from pieces of cover to the next......okay if you have forgotten your umbrella or coat you are likely to get wet and no matter how much ducking or improvisng is realistically going to stop that.

I still don't understand the theory of putting a newspaper above your head! It may keep you dry for a few minutes but you are likely to end up with a damp paper mache helmet plastered to your head (okay my hair is reasonably short and sufficient unruley that it doesn't matter how wet it gets it still does it's own thing, and my makeup collection is sufficiently limited that it is unlikely to run in the wet!) I also don't understand the theory that standing in a doorway till it passes if the whole sky looks the colour of charcoal and the rain is coming down in stair-rods (not sure where that phrase comes from). Humans are designed to get wet......we have this magic barrier that prevent water getting in.....and we have managed for millenia with just this, before even putting clothes on top (I'm pretty sure I didn't miss the physiology class where we were told that humans were water soluble.....although I admit that I missed the comparative anatomy class where we compared homo sapiens with Wizard of Oz characters so I may be wrong!)

As it was I got a very relaxing, soothing walk home from the office, past cowering crowds, along pretty deserted streets with the swirl of colours mixing on the pavement or in the drains from small spills of oil, only occasionally having to avoid a fellow pedestrian bowed beneath their umbrellas.....and if I got a little wet, well I didn't have to sit next to me on the train whilst I dried out :)