I confess … I have an infatuation with wind!  Or should I be saying an inflatuation?  Every time I mention how windy the weather is Boyfriend will make a surreptitious bottom burp from the side of his mouth …

Now granted … there is something about gas that makes us giggle – so if you too want to join in the boyfriend gag,  please feel free to pretend bottom burp whenever I mention the W word or … any such synonym!

Lady president, Lady Toastmaster, Fellow Toastmasters, just to be perfectly clear my fascination is indeed weather – NOT gut related. 

You see, I’m convinced that where we live has suffered more gusty days than ever before.  I mean we weathered two serious cyclones at the end of 2021 one after the other with Arwen and Barra. Both of which clocked up winds of 98 mph.  

Boyfriend and I had been walking on Bodmin Moor that week with friends.  In the end we had to give up fencing the squalls (to be fair they were winning the bouts) but I think we won the match when we escaped to a cozy cafe near Kirkhampton with hot buttered teacakes! 🤣

You may have your own memories, those winds did cause quite some chaos.   I’m going to share a more recent memory.  It was May this year when Weymouth recorded a whopping gale of 116 mph.

That one strew the contents of the recycling bin at silly o’clock in the morning.  Cacophony or what? Boyfriend’s discarded beer cans were clattering around each of the 10 houses in our cul de sac.  Now picture this … me chasing around in my dressing gown, rain hat and galoshes trying to corral the offending articles into a black bin liner. 

One blast after another would send the tinnies rattling … just outside my reach.  This was embarrassing enough but made so much worse when Jimmy, the neighbour from top of the road came out to help me gather up those that had been tapping away at his front door. 🤣

That gale was almost as bad as the 121 mph Yokohama Typhoon in 2019.  We’d been touring Japan during the rugby world cup IN a camper-van.  Can you imagine that? Eek!  Luckily, this was our last night and we’d booked a hotel room  – so we bought wine, beer and Pot Noodles and instead of watching England beat the pants off France, we watched with inane interest the advance of typhoon Hagibis on Japanese TV. 

At 3 o’clock that morning, we awoke to repeated alert messages on the mobile also in Japanese!!!  I said blast to boyfriend, we may need to evacuate?  So we threw on some clothes and all our valuables (as you do in an emergency) and fearing to use the lift, stumbled down as fast as we could, the 30 flights to reception. When we showed the message to the receptionist, she smiled sweetly and said – “ah – typhoon on way!”  Pooh, pants and farts (give you that one) We took the lift back to bed!!! 🤣

Now there is a serious side to my wind infatuation.   According to Love Exploring – there have been 5 major weather events per decade since the1900s.  But during the first 3 years of this decade there have been 8.  That figure doesn’t include this year’s disastrous fires fanned by El Niño across the pacific.

Fellow Toastmasters, as somber as this has now turned, I really don’t want to finish on a downer.  Instead I’d like to encourage us all to find fortitude and resilience when embracing the elements … perhaps find the wheeze in our own windy sagas. Let us share moments of camaraderie with the weather and regale our tales with a sneaky whimsical bottom BURP.

And …. Let’s remember that it is humour that us gets us through our own typhoons with our very OWN yarns of pot noodles, tinnies and toasted teacakes.

Photo by Gotta Be Worth It:

Engaging Humour Pathway – Know Your Sense of Humour – Level 2 Project 1

Published by TheHiddenEdge

I love words - they communicate so much or so little depending on how you use them. Come and explore my thoughts with me in this, my learning journal. View all posts by TheHiddenEdge