Since I started teaching in 1988, I have always enjoyed telling my students that I don't have an umbrella, that I have never had an umbrella and that I will never have an umbrella. The reason for this? I'm a Londoner!
I don't consider rain to be a problem or a nuisance. It's part of life and not worth making a big fuss about. Rain happens.
Whenever we arrange something on the social programme our students always have one question: What happens if it rains?
My answer is always the same: We will get wet.
So yesterday we had a walking tour of Bloomsbury and it didn't rain. Today, Rob has taken a group of students to watch the tennis at Wimbledon. We have planned trips to go to the beach at Brighton and to watch Shakespeare in the open air Globe theatre. Over the summer we will also have picnics, football matches, trips to Oxford, music festivals... and all of them will be outside.
In fact, the only time rain is a problem is when I'm watching cricket. Of course, the most English of all sports, cricket, can only be played when it's not raining. And this sums up the character of the English - optimistic, open to challenges and not entirely realistic. Who else would invent a game less suited to their environment?
This afternoon I popped out to get a sandwich and the heavens opened. Monsoon. A deluge. As I ran past James Smith & Sons getting totally drenched I wished that I had an umbrella. Oh well.
No comments:
Post a Comment