Weird and Strange

What a horrible, horrible day. It rained and rained. There was thunder and lightning and a flood in the courtyard and a strange eerie yellow daylight for most of the morning.

Martin and family left early to get the train to Arles at 7.45am. I packed the luggage in the car and drove it to the station whilst they walked, via the boulangerie en route to collect some breakfast for the journey. By the time they got to the station they were soaked, poor things, but they were on their way to Arles and then Provence and hopefully some sunshine.

At least they had a good day yesterday and were able to explore La Cité in some unexpected (the forecast had been dire) sunshine. Today, however, the direness of the forecast was exactly spot-on. I retreated from the station to home and got on with my chores. Debrah and Christian went out to the market for supplies - then the air turned a yellowy-grey and the rain got harder - then it got even harder so that there was a river running down the street - then it got so hard that the drain in the courtyard couldn't cope and a flood ensued and there was a torrent running down the street and out of every drainpipe and cascading off the gutters that couldn't cope either.

The light was very very wierd. It was the sort of half light, slightly silvery, that you might get at dawn or during an eclipse and it was a bit spooky. We had all the lights on in the house because it was so dim and still the light was strange.

Poor Debrah and Christian returned soaked from above and below - despite riding out the worst of the storm in the safety of Bar Felix. I went down to the courtyard and poked a large piece of old copper pipe into the drain until the water started to run away (never throw away what might seem like useless bits of old junk cos you never know when they might come in useful!)

An hour later the whole episode repeated itself - strange light, enormous downpour, torrents of water - but at least no courtyard flood, due to my copper pipe action. Whilst not reaching the weirdness levels of the morning, the rain continued throughout the day in a relentless and depressing way.

Completely out of the blue, I got an email this morning from the son of the surgeon who sold the apartments to us, Monsieur D'Arzac. He wanted to book a room for his sister and her boyfriend - the same room that she had lived in for 10 years and which we have now converted into our Studio suite - now that seems a bit weird and spooky too. I found out that M. D'Arzac performed the surgery on a friend of mine here who needed a knee replacement and I had given him one of our cards to show him what we had done with the place - maybe that was how the whole thing came about. Well, I will happily put her up for a night and have invited them all to come and look at the transformation of their old living quarters.

Then Debrah gave Christian some post that she had brought with her from the UK - it turned out to be an invite to his dad's forthcoming wedding. The date is 16th August, which also happens to be the date that Debrah and I got married twelve years ago. How weird is that - both of Christians parents will have re-married on exactly the same date! - the most bizarre of coincidences.

I am now going to bed. I hope to have an ordinary night's sleep and wake up to a very ordinary and normal day .... but then again?