STORM WARNING

On Saturday evening, my local news feed posted an image of an "impressive double rainbow" being visible over the town "right now" and, because I happened to be idly perusing my "social networking" sites of choice at that precise moment, I was able to dash outside and see that it was, indeed, happening "right now" (if that's not too tense scrambling...) although it was already in the process of fading even as I watched.

I scrambled back inside the house (or, perhaps more aptly in this context, haven or shelter) and grabbed the first available camera, the pocket one that I bought last year for all those social occasions which I never attend, and ran outside again to snap off a couple of quick shots, noticing that my neighbour was standing in his own doorway and doing precisely the same thing...

I'm nothing if not unoriginal, but it did lead to perhaps the longest conversation that we've ever had, although, given that it's probably still less than four sentences, that is, quite literally, not saying much....

There are rallies in men's tennis which have gone on longer, to be honest...

Of course, it was a portent of something or other which was, most probably inclement (although previous generations might have slaughtered a goat or something as an act of appeasement to whichever Gods were then currently in favour) and within minutes the skies had darkened and the storm slammed into us in that mildly apocalyptic way they sometimes have and it was almost as if comedy stage hands were flinging buckets of water at the windows, and flashes of forked lightning were rending the air and bringing the loud crashes and rumbles of a good, old-fashioned proper thunderstorm.

Marvellous!