Cloud and Rain

Sitting in my dully lit living room (until I put the light on) and feeling that it was rather cool - a view endorsed by colleagues and relatives, I wondered whether I had anything to write about. A week ago I was in Paris albeit for a failed trip but today brought only work. The weight of responsibility of being Watch Supervisor was there to be felt and, whatever the perceptions of my colleagues, I had plenty to do. In the final half hour I was called upon to support Heathrow as weather avoiding disrupted traffic.

It had not been so evident further south and the semi-final teams at the Rose Bowl had made it on and off the field with little disruption. After my customary nap though, it was a different story. As I was considering the merits of a new post a sound outside alerted me to the fall of heavy, thundery rain splashing vigorously on our garden wall and in my eyeline. The distant thunder rolled menacingly around and yet more rain fell in this extraordinary August. The temperatures have been indisputably cool, the cloud persistent and the rain frequent. What are we to think? These are conditions which discourage extra-mural activities when perhaps we should be walking around and dampen photography when we should be being creative.

There are various opportunities on forthcoming days off and I hope they are fulfilled but my focus for the while is on the last ten days of September when, at a guess, we will recreate earlier trips to Devon, Cornwall and Scotland and hope that the reruns take place in better weather than the first attempts. If BAA strikes take place there could be a lot of people relying on the UK for their late holidays. With or without airport disruption, I remain unenthusiastic about flying without a very good reason and fully expect to spend more time on land and at sea.

I can probably be happy wherever I am with Greg and if this weather continues, that is more likely to be in the car or even at home than anywhere very exciting. Perhaps I should not seek too much excitement; they do say 'be careful what you wish for'. I'll take a risk to close and wish for world peace and that the polar bears still have somewhere to live in 50 years time.