World of Chig   

16.10.02

Here Comes The Rain Again


Footie: I haven’t mentioned this here before, but I’ve been playing football on Tuesdays. Eight times so far, and last night something momentous happened. The team that I was on actually won, for the first time. I’d like to pretend the last seven weeks’ losses were purely coincidence, but my conscience tells me it’s because I’m absolutely crap. I really enjoy it though, so for as long as the others are prepared to put up with my crapness, I’ll keep going. Besides, the ongoing pouring rain last night saw only ten of us turn up, down from the usual fourteen. Wimps. And talking of the weather….

Storm: Last night was the fifteenth anniversary of The Big Storm that devastated South-East England. I can’t believe it was that long ago, and I bet Michael Fish dreads the 15th of October every year. By a strange coincidence, on the way back from footie, with it still pouring with rain, I drove past the place I was living that night in 1987. On campus, 11 floors up in Stafford Tower, we had seen bin bags dancing around outside our kitchen window that night, and we stayed in because the windows were rattling and it looked so inhospitable outside. And that was in Birmingham. It was bad enough here, but the damage down South was enormous. As I drove past that tower again last night with people keeping their heads down in the rain, leaves swirling around in the dark and, later, branches fallen into the roads, I had this strange feeling that it was all about to happen again. But it didn’t, thank goodness.

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