British to the Core

Today

A friend's Facebook status today said that, as it was tipping down with rain, they were off to the zoo. "After all", she explained "We're British!"

In My Day

Somewhere in the British psyche is the assumption that events go ahead whatever the weather. In the arena in Verona the music stops with one drop of rain.

We were living in Southampton at the time, which makes it 1986, and our friends the Levetts came to visit. One of the local attractions was the Beaulieu Motor Museum. So off we set, complete with picnic. I'm sure we had a lovely time; the men enjoyed the classic car show and talked cars, carburettors and the old days. We girls didn't really object to the display of fine old cars and chatted as old friends do.

Eventually we all felt hungry and went to collect the picnic, groundsheet etc. Beaulieu has some beautiful woods and we found a clearing and spread out the food. This wasn't just an affair of a few sandwiches; I'd undoubtedly made salad, little rice burgers, hard-boiled eggs and provided cheese, bread and so on. So it took a while to lay it all out, complete with serviettes and plates. We ignored the darkening skies.

As the first drops of rain pattered gently on the leaves above we resolutely munched on. It became chilly. The rain began to penetrate the leaves and land on ourselves and the food. What of it? We're British! A little rain doesn't upset us! We cut into the cheese and filled our mugs with wine, pretending this was all just as it should be.

Suddenly Beverley started guffawing with laughter. "What's up?" we asked. "This is crazy, we're nuts!" she laughed. "Anywhere else in world people would have packed up by now. Anyway, I'm soaked!" We saw the funny side, packed up our sodden picnic and went home.

Now, as then, Beverley had shed the crystal light of common sense. "Bonkers Mad!" was her verdict on her daughter's plans for a day out. Quite.