in which fi becomes an old git

...when I stand in the showers at the swimming pool and lean right back so my eyes and face are right underneath the flow, the water drumming on the top of my thick head sounds just like rain pouring down on my conservatory roof.

I don't think rain is as good as it used to be. When I was little (in my day, as it were), I used to love sitting inside listening to the rain. Especially at night, when it was so dark that I couldn't see the rain but I could hear it, and if I stuck my hand out the window (which I would) I could feel it. I liked rain at night because it broke the silence, it got rid of the irrational fear that maybe I was the only person left in the world, maybe everyone else was just gone. I figured, civilisation couldn't have disappeared if it's still raining.

Really heavy rain is the best. Spitting rain just gets annoying, I like downpours. If it can be described as a downpour, or torrential, or pouring, then I like it. I'm only in it for rain that really drenches me. Not damp, not moist but absolutely soaked to the skin. That is rain. When we went to see the Woman in Black (or was it Cats?) in Woking, we had a real downpour. It was raining so hard that we were soaked the instant we stepped outside. We made a run for the shopping centre at first, but then a couple of us gave up. And by gave up, I mean we ran back outside and started jumping in puddles.

That's what rain is for.

But when I'm inside, rain just doesn't sound as loud as it used to. I don't get that safe, snug feeling of 'I'm on the inside, nice and warm'. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that it doesn't even rain as often as it used to. And when it does, it never rains as hard. Kids today, they don't even know what real rain is like. In my day we had real rain.