Summer rain

I start a week of night shifts soon, so the Boss Lady has given me two days off to 'prepare' myself for the long haul.

It has been Raining all day.

Raining!

Now, I love rain and I love thunderstorms. I love the heavy rain thats fall thickly like from the sky, drenching the trees, flowing down my windowpane in rivulets and turning the roads into glittering black streams. Sometimes, I would put down my umbrella for a few seconds, and lift my face to the sky, so that I could watch the raindrops as they fly towards the earth, like so many glittering pearls, landing in great splashes on my forehead and cheeks. And afterwards, there is a wonderful smell in the air - a sharp, clean, crisply green, sparkling blue smell.

Drizzling, however, is something I cannot abide. Especially the pathetic London Drizzle - not strong enough to warrant an umbrella, but penetrating enough to chill. Worst of all, when the drizzle dries off, it leaves a faintly greasy, sticky film on the skin. It does nothing to clear away the city grime - in fact, it makes it look all the more worse for wear; clumps of mud bubbling on the pavement, being spread all around the city by yuppie footwear.

In my entire time in the UK, I haven't ever experienced the type of Rain that we get in Singapore, where the stormclouds roar across the sky and the trees flail their branches wildly in protest.

But it's Raining today.

And there that wonderful green and blue smell in the air.