Cape Town Rain

If you haven't spent some time in Cape Town in winter, chances are you haven't come across any real rain. I don't mean prissy can-barely-be-bothered-to-spit-on-you rain, or that gentle swanning about warm weather rain. No, I mean serious grumpy, bad mood rain that refuses to rain down towards the earth and instead rains horizontally. Rain that rains so hard your windscreen wipers are ineffective on the highest setting. Rain that can drench you in less than a minute, through to the skin. Rain that pounds on your windows and keeps you awake at night like a bad domestic fight (like last night). Yes, this rain is real rain, real rain that ensures that 1) an umbrella goes beyond useless to a flapping piece of soaked material battering about trying to splatter you even more and 2) any rain coat that does not reach the ground is only as effective as the % full body cover it provides. Cape Town rain takes particular pleasure in blowing umbrella's  inside out with one gale force puff. Cape Town rain likes to blow grannies (and anyone else) off the pavement into the road and into oncoming traffic. Cape Town rain is MEAN!!

And every now and then Cape Town rain will smile and blue skies will pop out, the sun glints off the shiny wet landscape, pretty waterfalls sprout on the mountain and you wonder if you imagined the storm from 10 minutes ago. And five minutes later its back to MEAN. Yes, that's Cape Town rain.

If you see blue skies, do the washing, it may dry! Otherwise, rent some dvd's, snuggle up on the couch with some fresh popcorn and enjoy the slowdown of pace in Cape Town in winter...