we were in the grips of a fierce storm which decided to schedule itself when i had to drive up-country. i was staying at a place i haven’t been before and should have been fairly easy to spot due to the fucking big sign posted. but i missed it. i drove a couple of clicks up the road to the lake alice turn off. then had to double back in sideways rain. not pleasant.
i had a moment of nostalgia though cos my paternal great-grandfather was confined to the lake alice psychiatric institution (now closed down) when it was decided that he and my great-grandmother needed to be separated because she had some sort of medical condition (which at under 10 i was not privy to and was possibly just old age). he was mentally normal but there was nowhere to put him in the late 70s/early 80s nz that could cope with someone separated from the love of their life and not brought up to cook and clean for themself as the men of the time weren’t. they went from their mother’s care to their wife’s care..it was just how it was.
anyway. finally found my way to marton and my bed for the night despite the sideways rain. when i eventually got to said bed i was confused. now, i live in ‘windy’ wellington and palmerston north, which was where i was staying by day, is actually far windier than wellington but welly always gets the bad rap. the reason why i was confused was due to arriving in the dark and not actually being able to visualise my surroundings as i had never seen them in the clear light of day. there was a stand of trees outside my boudoir. the wind whistling through them sounded like the rain i hear on my roof back home so i was confused as to which sound was only wind and which was wind AND rain.
the first night was loud. the second was also so. on the first night i knew i must of slept cos i dreamed. i dreamed of flooding. the second night i also must of slept cos i dreamed about building an ark…in between being aware of maybe actually building one. i know i was awake cos the budgie in the next room screamed the whole night. it (i never asked its name or gender cos it was only being baby sat) seemed to be distressed by the storm and then rarked up the cockatoo which also began screaming for attention. in my experience it has learned to scream at approximately 7am and is a good alarm clock (on a weekday…no weekend sleep in allowed it seems). i also never knew its name or gender. in between that and the yelling lambs (i’m pretty sure I’m a true blue townie despite having visited a farm in hawera (or hara according to the locals) cos i was awoken by that too) many times in my formative years (my first ciggie was inhaled in the hay shed on said farm, not the most appropriate place i know).
on the second night there was much rain. in fact there was rain then nothing then more rain. this makes me think it was a hurricane. i made note of this between ‘sleeping’. i was woken by rain. then i was woken by not rain. and then again by rain. so. storm (build an ark). not storm (everything’s alright…JCSS reference). storm (build an ark).
on the journey home I was tailed by a police officer. i love driving but this was the most stressful piece of driving i’ve ever done. (bucket required for the next part). i have never received a fine for anything. i anally stick to the speed limit and the road rules much to the chagrin of people i know and the other drivers who like to break the law. so to be tailed by a cop for at least half an hour was not a thing i enjoyed even though i was very careful to not put a foot wrong. i was very pleased when he decided to break the speed limit and overtake me. however, approximately five minutes after tailing him (slightly less stressful cos he could now dictate the speed at which we travelled) he pulled over suddenly and i had to overtake him again. then to add insult to injury he turned on his lights as another two cars passed him. i hadn’t done anything wrong so i was ok. but now i wanted to know who he had pinged. since it occurred at the top of a rise and i was now at the bottom i never saw.
lastly. the storm first made its appearance at school on friday afternoon . i was in the gym with 60 students. they screamed at the flashes and bangs. i love thunderstorms so i was ok. it was loud and i wanted to preserve my hearing (family history of deafness and all) so with five minutes until lunch and a break in the weather i decided to take all the children back to their classrooms. when we were walking back to said classrooms there was more lightning. in nz we usually get sheet lightning. therefore i was blown away by the forked lightning bolt that descended from on high and hit the ground about 150 metres away from me (well that’s what it looked like). one of my students said he was going to come back over the weekend and see if there was a burned patch. i’ll ask him about that tomorrow. that was the best piece of lightning i’ve ever seen in nz. the production dress rehearsal was cancelled so we watched billy t and then played games. a good friday all round.
this has been a long post so laters.
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