Thar he blows!

Again!

Another weekend, another bout of sickness.

It started on Friday when I had taken the day off from work in order to do some shopping for Saturday's lunch when we were expecting 6 friends and their children - we were all looking forward to it.

In a nutshell, M had a migraine, Missy was covered in a very dubious looking rash and J had a nasty tummy bug which left him either sat on the toilet or kneeling in front of it!

This spilt over into Saturday leaving us no choice but to cancel lunch and the entire weekend just kind of spluttered by, not helped of course by the stinking weather.

The incredible rain and thunderstorm yesterday afternoon got us all going though. By "going" I mean, J leaping up off the floor at the first clap of very loud thunder and sprinting across the room into my arms - that was pretty funny! He thought so too, thankfully.

J and I opened the front door and stood watching the torrents of water literally flooding down our street, the drains overflowing, the car tyres 6 inches deep in rainwater.

Another flash of lightning and then a huge boom of thunder. Again, J clapped his hands over his ears but laughing now, braver as I was holding him. He was scared though - I have to admit, the storm was right overhead.

I then taught him how to tell if a storm was getting closer or moving away. Watch for the flash of lightning then count, 1 ...... 2 ...... 3 ........ boom, crash of thunder, watch for the next flash then count again and if you can count to a higher number than last time, the storm is moving away. If it's less, the storm is getting closer.

I explained all this with a smile on my face. My brother and I watched Poltergeist repeatedly when we were younger and the father in the film explains the same thing to his son (just before a tree branch reaches in and drags the terrified youngster through the window and tries to eat him!!!!). Nothing like that in SW London I'm happy to report!

Thankfully, between the flashes of lightning and the huge claps of thunder (as in Poltergeist), we counted upwards. We stayed put so J could see this theory proved right.

Then, amazingly, the storm and rain stopped - as suddenly as it appeared - but only after having breathed fresh life into all that desperately needed it. The grass in the back garden, burnt brown over recent months, looked instantly revived, almost willing itself back to green.

I then uttered that immortal line, "well, the garden needed that!".

Jeez, I hate it when I say that!