A quiet day at home...

I hate being sick, but i seem to have chosen an excellent day for it. It's pouring with rain - or at least it was earlier. Now the sun's out. Such is the crazy Spring weather that is wreaking havoc on London, that i have been told is perfectly normal for this time of year. I was lulled into a false sense of Spring in late March, when we were blessed with four or five days' worth of glorious 23 degree weather. For the first time in nearly twelve months, i was out and about with nary a jacket nor jumper in sight. The daffodils were still plentiful and the tulips had just begun to appear.

There was some sort of festival going on,  and Bromley was bustling with people. There was the usual high street market stalls that pop up every weekend, the tent selling yummy Cumberland sausages, the jewellry place and the guy who paints pictures of Daleks,   but there was also an art installation - a "balloon forest", rows and rows of giant coloured balloons that glowed in the sunlight.

I was stoked! It was beautiful. I competed with the squealing children to weave my way through the balloons. There was a band playing, which we watched for a little while, and looked at an exhibit of all the planned developments for Bromley. It's going to be a very trendy place to be in coming years. Sometimes it feels like it's so far out of London, but really, it's not even as far as from Canberra City to Tuggeranong. But it doesn't have a London postcode, and it feels like it takes me hours to get there or get home from there whenever i go... But anyway, this entry is not supposed to be a whinge about Bromley. I love Bromley. I just wish it was around the corner from the Elephant.


So that was a few weeks ago, when the weather fooled me into believing that Spring had arrived and would be warm and wonderful. Since then, however, the very cold weather has returned and has hung around for a couple of weeks. Plus the rain. Oh, the rain. England doesn't do "drought" very well, and all my friends at home laugh when i tell them we're in a drought. Even English people don't seem to be taking it seriously. I guess "drought" is subjective, and depends on how much rain a place normally gets. Everything is so green here. The only thing that gives away the drought is the fact that i've been here nigh on six months and this is the first time it's rained more than one day at a time.

Yes, six months. Next week will be six full months since i left Canberra. I'm not sure what i'll do to observe the event, but i will be thinking of it. It's a milestone. I'll be a quarter of the way through my England adventure. Only eighteen months to go.