Spring in my Step

The days are getting longer. The mornings are brighter and lighter. The birds are singing. The flowers are blooming. Etc. etc. before I launch into a badly worded, clichéd poem, you get the message. I am feeling the Spring effect. We all know it, ‘The Spring Effect’, where you feel inexplicably happy, relieved and jubilant at the prospect that those long winter nights are almost over.

It has been a particularly long winter for me. My first winter of commuting (not in London) and rarely seeing daylight. Now at least there is hope of going for a nice summer evening-pint outside when I get back from work. Or enjoying a cool jog by the sea and watching the sunset. Or going for an evening game of tennis. Or a BBQ on the beach before sunset.

Ah, all those romantic notions of summertime. They are nearly upon us.

Isn’t it amazing how great it makes you feel? I sat on my train this morning watching the countryside speed by, marvelling at the crisp blue sky, the green-ness of the trees, the sparkling of the water.

Lovely.

Talking of the crisp blue sky, I got very close to booking a sky-dive today. A bit of a ‘tick the box to say I’ve done this’ life-time ambition. I was going to press the submit button, and then read the ‘Terms and Conditions’ and got rather freaked out by how many times the word ‘death’ was included in the clauses.

I know it’s pretty safe (especially if doing a tandem), but my sensibility got the better of me, and I will wait for another day when I am feeling a bit braver.

Blowin' in the Wind

I think High Winds are exciting yet scary. There’s something quite humbling about being nearly blown off your feet by something so powerful. It makes you realise how small and little we are in comparison to Mother Nature. I quite enjoy listening to powerful winds from the safety and comfort of an indoor place.

On the other hand, high winds can be extremely frightening and dangerous. You only have to look at the headlines on the breakfast news to realise the tragedy that high winds can evoke.

On the train this morning, there was a tree that had fallen over the track. It hadn’t fallen in a way that meant we couldn’t pass, though. The train driver braked sharply (as sharp as you can brake with a train which doesn’t do anything quickly) but then made the decision to barge through the tree with his big train. It worked, but the tree knocked against the side of the entire train as the train passed. It was a bit like when you go past low-hanging trees when you are sitting on the top deck of a double-decker bus. Bang bang knock crack – right on the window by your face.

The sea goes mad when it is windy. It crashes right against the walls of the coast and sprays sea water all over the place. It’s very exciting, but today they have closed off the road that runs parallel to the sea for fear of flooding. Plus, I am told that salt water is no good for a car’s bodywork.

I hope everyone is coping well with the wind today!