Come Rain Or Shine

There's always comfort under the rainbow (umbrella)

Oscar Wilde might have once written "Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative" but he never mentioned blogs. Like everyone in the capital, my return to work after the second May bank holiday was accompanied by heavy downpour. Following three days of hot sun, normal British service had resumed. But unlike most people who on that Tuesday morn returned to the office armed with umbrellas and clad in cagoules, I did so with a spring in my step.

Rain after a period of intense heat - and let's be frank, 25°c in London in May is nothing short of sweltering (not to mention just one degree less than in Malaga) - always freshens things up and can be rather invigorating. (Especially if you have a good umbrella - and the garish, rainbow-coloured wind-blaster I acquired on a recent trip to New York offers complete protection, while brightening up the day.)

It reminds me of playing cricket after a quick sprinkling, of hampered Wimbledon tournaments (held up but never defeated). Forget Wilde, for as the hardly unimaginative 19th century British social thinker John Ruskin once conversed: "Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather."

And now the caveat: I was not even in London during the warm bank holiday. From my Dorset retreat - where I read the papers outside, took the dogs for walks, went for a run in the butter-cup tinged fields, drank cider in the beer garden of the local pub, masterminded two barbeques and managed 18 holes of golf (despite a fractured wrist) - I was getting regular updates from my housemate on the heatwave in SW6. Talk was of roof terrace usage, running in Bishops Park, a rugby sevens tournament, hanging out on the South Bank and successfully sealing a date (so probably best I was absent).

Despite my idyllic countryside frolics, I will admit to being a trifle envious - London in the sunshine is a breathtaking place. Its parks, lidos, open spaces, festivals, markets, riverside walks and outdoors events are unparalleled - even the biggest nit-picker would find it hard to moan.

This summer Sian Lloyd and the suits at the Met Office say we're in for a scorcher - about time too after the disappointments of the last three years. Our enjoyment of the capital, however, should not be solely dependent upon the weather - as my recent trip to New York highlighted.

I went there to visit our older sister and her boyfriend who have swapped Dalston for the Meatpacking District (a fair trade?) for a few months of painting (both are artists, alumni of the Royal Academy). Given London's superb weather this spring - just where were the April showers? - I expected a week of sun, shorts, strolling (and other things beginning with 's', such as, erm, steak).

What we got was pretty much a constant storm, made even more galling by the fact that NYC had just come out of mini heat-wave. The purchase of the aforementioned umbrella did alleviate matters a tad, but the general tone of the trip was lowered by the heavy drum of rain that accompanied our getting up every morning before hitting the tourist trail.

And yet I quickly realised there's nothing you can do about the weather and, short of embracing it, you must at least work with it. New York offered so much for us to do in the shape of indoors activities (the museums are staggering) while even a drenched walk around Central Park was still something to be cherished.

Why should London be any different? Visiting a foreign city you feel more inclined to jam-pack your days and see all the sights. But just because many of us living and working here see ourselves as Londoners, it doesn't mean we should switch off from the making a checklist of quirky places to visit and interesting things to do.

I like to think of cities as the setting for a vast computer game where I'm the main protagonist - like Zelda in the Kingdom of Hyrule if you will - and a digital camera my weapon of choice. Looking down on a plan of Paris, New York, Moscow or Barcelona is like holding up a treasure map; the weather is just another factor in my quest for exploration.

London should provide that same spark. I may have resided here for almost five years but I know full well that there's an unchartered mass out there ripe for the picking. Come rain or shine, there's a bottomless bag of events and locations - and as Wilde might say: only the unimaginative would get bored in such a city, even if it rains.

So, as I made my way to the tube this morning with my umbrella held high, I had that sense of excitement and expectation that I get in London ahead of the summer. Yes, it may be pelting down now, but it won't continue (in fact, it stopped this very afternoon). The forecast for the coming weekend is hot; I won't be in Dorset this time round; let the real-life computer game commence.

And if the weather turns bad again one weekend - as I'm sure it will do quite a few times between here and October - remember the inspirational words of Groucho Marx, who once harrumphed: "I'm leaving because the weather is too good. I hate London when it's not raining."

Not Up Sir Paul's Street

Who didn't have a sneaky peek at Google Street View when it launched to see their streets, houses, cars parked outside, next door neighbour's cat or even themselves, caught in the very act of leaving the building! But if you thought you could do a bit of reverse curtain twitching around London to peer into the front rooms of the rich and famous, then you’ll have to get past with their security teams first. Sir Paul McCartney's St John’s Wood townhouse has been removed from the site after he realised people could see the property from all angles. Maybe it just didn't catch it in the best light.

Flying High

You prepare for a lot of things at Heathrow: trying to squeeze your cosmetics or shaving kit into a tiny plastic bag before they'll let you through to Duty Free, lost luggage (to be expected) and the odd celeb throwing a strop / telephone (mentioning no names, Naomi Campbell). But a drunk pilot heading for a plane? Nope, that's not on our list of things to check before boarding! Luckily, the man-in-question was stopped and breathalysed before being let loose on the controls and American Airlines said it "has strict policies on alcohol and substance abuse". Well, that's something.

This Is (not quite) It

We don't need to ask whether Michael Jackson's first four O2 shows have been postponed because Jacko is wacko; that's pretty much par for the course nowadays. But it has left us pondering his reasons. The official line is that the King of Pop hasn't got enough time to rehearse, but the excuse that he's "a perfectionist" from AEG promoter Randy Phillips is wearing a little thin for fans who now have to wait eight months to see the show, called 'This Is It'.

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