It's happened before but it's always frightening.
I refer to what I call a rain flashpoint. It happened yesterday late afternoon/early evening on the way back from watching England Ladies and Spain Ladies grind out a goalless draw (more about this later). We were taking the grandkids home and were on the A11.
The rain was heavy and visibility wasn't good but then we just hit an avalanche of sheet rain just as we were going to turn off to Wymondham. Suddenly I couldn't see the turnoff or the road. I had to drop my speed to about 20 mph and just hope something didn't run into my back. But as quick as it came, it disappeared and I could see again.
This kind of thing takes me back many years to the day we hit a torrential downpour in the USA. We were driving from Maryland to Richmond in Virginia and going via Harpers Ferry in West Virginia. Until the late 19th century Harpers Ferry was grammatically correct as it was known as Harper's Ferry. Then for no apparent reason they dropped the apostrophe and ever since it's been known as Harpers Ferry.
It's best known for John Brown's raid on the town armoury in 1859. Yes that John Brown as in the song John Brown's Body lies a mouldering in his grave. Brown was a slavery abolitionist who was executed in 1859 for murder and treason against Virginia and for leading an attempted and unsuccessful slave insurrection. Today he would probably receive awards.
But back to the weather. When we left Maryland it was a very pleasant 60 degrees Fahrenheit. The Americans don't do Centigrade. When we got out at Harpers Ferry with no apostrophe the heat hit us as soon as we opened the car door. It was well over 100. The car was air conditioned so we had no idea what we were stepping into.
But before we got to Harpers Ferry (still without the apostrophe) we hit a blanket of rain which was beyond torrential. Visibility was zero and all the vehicles pulled over to the side of the road and waited for it to abate. It really was that bad. I can't remember how long we had to wait but pulling over was the only safe and sensible thing to do.
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I have long held this belief that sport should be entertaining. Today there is often too much at stake for this to be the case. Many involved in professional sport have forgotten that the public pay to watch sport. Their views are too introverted, their tactics too negative.
And so it was with the ladies international between England and Spain where the teams cancelled each other out and it ended 0-0. Both teams were playing to set patterns of play that had little to do with entertainment.
At least the GB ladies curling team won a gold medal at the winter Olympics. It was nice to see Japan playing with smiles on their faces despite losing and having to settle for a silver medal.
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Over the weekend I have noticed that fewer people are now wearing face masks. Nobody was wearing them at the football and in the supermarket on Saturday it was about 50-50. I think I will continue to wear mine in shops and on public transport for another month or so despite restrictions being totally relaxed soon.