So last Weekend Ireland and the UK where told to 'Batten down the hatches' as the 'storm of the century' was bubbling up in the Atlantic and on its way to beat the glue out of these Isles. Now I love a storm , I know people out there in the USA who are living in Tornado Alley and the Gulf area wouldn't share that point of view with me - but Im from a mild and humble little country where the rain falls soft on green fields where the brae of a donkey is uninterrupted by the staccato resonance of raindrops. Its such a novelty for us. As children we where told of the mythical and humorous notion that the thunder was really the itinerants trying to steal the gates of heaven.
I was only 16 when the hurricane of 1987 came to these shores, and the romance of the lightning and the powerful winds did not conjure up fear in me, it made me feel alive with all things great. Watching the veined hands of electricity trying to grasp the earth, feeling the wind scream through your hair and having an almost exfoliating effect on your skin. The geography and landscape switching to from day to night in seconds, Beautiful yet savage, not thinking once about its consequential dividends.
So I was very much hyped up for the upcoming storm, we took all the flowerpots in from the veranda, made sure all essentials where in and watched the rainfall and satellite forecasts on the meteor logical Ireland site. And we waited .... and we waited until about 1am I gave up my dream of being 16 again.
The saying popped into my head as I lay my head on the pillow in a pissed off spoiled childlike fashion -'there can be only 2 things in this world that is certain; Death and taxes'
*this vid contains two of my favorite things tom waits & crystal gayle's album 'this ones from the heart' and some classy looking lightening.
