Thunderstorms in Greece are just not what we signed up for

Lucy Penman

This week’s helping of mince (or insightful, pithy comment, depending on your taste) comes to you from Greece. I know, there is no limit to my selflessness when it comes to broadening my horizons on your account.

But before you start feeling resentful, allow me to let you know that, even though I am lucky enough to be a) on holiday and b) in a beautiful place, IT IS RAINING and has been on and off since we arrived. This was not what we signed up for.

I realise this counts as a First World problem, but really? Greece? Raining? On our guaranteed sunshine holibags? For which we booked an adults-only hotel, as we have become those people we used to despise when we had a small child in tow.

The Student blew us out as she had far more exciting offers for the university holidays and was frankly horrified that we were heading off to a well-known party island, much favoured by school leavers. “Oh my actual god, you’re not going there, it’ll be soooooo embarrassing.”

Since we are in the more quiet and refined part of the island, we have no access to a banana boat or a how-many-shots-can-you-downbefore-vomiting pirate party ship, but believe me, when the weather turns either option would be quite tempting. For the problem with an unexpected thunderstorm is the grumpiness that ensues – mainly from me, as Mr P is like a pig in you-know-what because the World Cup is on.

As my regular reader is aware, he basically sees any summer holiday as a wee blip in his conscientious monitoring of whatever sporting event happens to be on. He is now in cahoots with a young waiter who has been more than willing to risk losing his job by sneaking regular looks at his iPad to keep Mr P updated on goals while we enjoy lunch or dinner.

However, in BREAKING NEWS: The sun has come out! We are saved! No more “Don’t worry, there are four games on today”. I guess we’ll soldier on after all.