Just in case you need to find me!

I am staying with Ivan & Brenda Rudolph this weekend, in Wurtulla on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, where it has been raining since I arrived, two sharks have chomped off people's hands (don't they have Health and Safety here?) and I am discovering the local version of Joburg's Hadeedaa birds, cawing away nicely in the garden somewhere.

Wettest Summer Ever

Heard this morning that this summer in Britain is now officially the wettest on record, breaking the previous record from 1789. Well, a whopping 13mm more than way back then. Weather data has been kept here on Mud Island for 240 years, and our first summer had to be the wettest of them all! Not that it has bugged us or made us miserable. An early autumn might do that though! No doubt it will be conclusively so, as there is still life in those clouds! I cut the grass yesterday - takes a whopping 20 minutes to mow our expansive English Estate - and was astonished at how fast the grass had grown in the week we were away. Oh dear, resistance is futile - are we being assimilated into the quintessential British habit - finding the weather of central importance! The Union Flag umbrella graphic comes from: http://www.triple-c.com/Images/thumb_uj_umb101.jpg

What goes BOOM in the rain?

Brits don't cancel because of weather - watching a fireworks

display in the rain on the Worthing seafront at the Worthing Festival 2007

Friday night was the big fireworks night of this week's Worthing Festival. Rain almost stopped play, but the show started on time, and the first couple of minutes were great! Then the smoke from the exploding fireworks seemed to mix with low clouds, and soon all we could see was the ocassional colourful flash, and then hear the explosions. What a pity, especially for the Lions Club of Worthing, arrangers of the event. I overheard one of them saying the fireworks cost £7000.

English Bobbies

walking a wet beat down Worthing's beach front

Richard Banks and Rose

waiting for the fireworks show to begin

Still Loving the Rain

Photo credit: eWallpaper

It has rained most of the night, and still pouring this morning - but Rose and I were discussing how much we actually still like rainy days. UK people are weather-obsessed, and for the most part get gloomy and unhappy when it rains like it is this week. I guess that growing up in Africa, where the rain often comes as a relief - from heat, for farmers, etc. So we have not yet reached the place where we get all upset with the wet weather. Not yet anyway.