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.]
