There is a storm brewing

There are not many things I am really scared of. There are things I really don't like, spiders for example but I can be pretty brave and deal with them while Joe cowers in the corner. But then he deals with the mice and cockroaches while stand on the bed like a big girl. The one thing I am pretty scared of is storms. My fear is pretty irrational but has a background. I do not like thunder storms - I never had. This all stems from my brother - sorry Rich. He told me as a child that I was more likely to be struck with lighting because I have a pacemaker. Richard being my older brother and the more intelligent I believed him (No arguments here, I accept that my brother is more intelligent than me - I however am the more beautiful!). So I as you can imagine developed a fear of thunder storms. I am not to keen on gales either. This comes from the storms that hit England in 1987. A tree came though the roof of our house and I came with in a few inches of my life.

So that is the background to my fears. For the past couple of nights we have had some pretty impressive tropical storms. I am no a meteorologist or anything but I think that because the dry season is approaching and it is getting hotter there are some areas of high pressure and this causes the storms (well something like that). So last night not long after Joe got home from football the storm started. First just a bit of rain, to which we say 'I thought the dry season was starting'. Then the power goes out, flicks on and off for a while. Meanwhile Joe is having great fun in the shower in the dark! Then the wind starts and the rain gets heavier lashing on the tin roof and windows. At which point Joe is getting wetter from the rain coming though the open window than the shower as the water pressure is a bit naff in the evenings. The blind from the window is also flapping around in his way. Fortunately he sees the funny side of all this! So the rain is lashing, the wind is blowing, there is no electricity and we can see really bright lightning that lights up the whole sky. We can not hear any thunder so I know the centre of the storm is far from here but I still do not like it. We see a lot of lighting, maybe because we are often above the clouds being 1000m above sea level here in Buea. During the day it is not too bad, but at night it is so bright its scary.

So I cowered in the corner - away from the windows in case the palm tree fell down. I just kept thinking to myself that palm trees are pretty bendy so it should not fall. Holding the torch so Joe and get dressed. We then spend the rest of the evening by candle light and the storm passes pretty quickly. Thankfully before we went to bed 'cos I would never sleep! Lets just hope the storms do not last long, maybe my fears will be cured by the time we leave here.