Automatic Umbrella

The other day, it was raining. You may think that, for this time of year and in a southern-hemisphere country, this might be an occurrence worth noting. However, this summer it has been the pattern for us to receive two weeks of miserable weather for every two days of sunshine and warmth. In fact, I’m surprised that little icons of poos didn’t start appearing over various regions of the country on the weather report on television every time we were due for (yet more) bad weather.

But I digress. The point is, was raining, and I was walking into school. I’d brought my umbrella: one of those ingenious ones that open with the press of a button, theoretically eradicating the need to struggle for ten minutes trying to erect it manually in a downpour. As I got out of the car, I held my umbrella out and pushed the button, quite forcefully, with my thumb.

No matter how many times I tried, my umbrella refused to open. What’s more, I was getting progressively wetter, so in the end I had to give up and walk into school, drenched, and holding my umbrella. For those of you who have never been a sad girl walking into school amongst crowds of people, soaked through and clutching a closed umbrella, let me tell you: it is not fun.

And then, of course, as is the natural order of things, my umbrella finally opened later in the day, when I was dry and it was no longer raining and I didn’t need it any more.

[And for further reading on the subject of umbrellas, click away.]