Follow the mail on Twitter.

• +
• -
• Text size

It is so tiresome when people keep asking if the rain in Nicosia makes me feel at home. I really don’t know what that question means but I think the simple answer is no! I do like the rain. And I like the fact that in countries where it rains a lot the landscape is generally green rather than a sort of camel-coloured shade of biscuit brown. However, when it rains in Nicosia it bears very little resemblance to when it rains in London. And it would take a rather more powerful leap of imagination to conjure up London life than I am able to muster. Firstly, Nicosia is nothing like London and secondly, when it rains in London, nothing changes because it rains on a regular basis.

Here it is actually quite exciting when it rains because everything changes and absolutely nothing works. This morning I got up early to take the dog out for a walk in the sunshine and view the damage caused by the, admittedly quite heavy, rainfall of the last 48 hours. It was sort of reminiscent of getting up after the great storm of 1987 in Southern England when Sevenoaks and its famous seven trees became one oak. There were however, hurricane force winds to account for that. Last year in the north of England, flooding caused horrendous damage after more than 300mm of rain fell in 24 hours. But that is more than the average rainfall for Cyprus in a year and not quite the same thing at all.

In Cyprus when it rains a bit, everything floods and leaks and there is general chaos everywhere. Why? Is there something wrong with the drainage system on the roads? I saw a number of cars stranded under several inches of water yesterday and it was almost impossible to get home. The river in Strovolos did not flood; it just became a river rather than a dry bed and the bridges now have water flowing under them. Yesterday, one low bridge actually had a bit of water on top as well, which may be why it took me an hour and a half to do a ten minute journey as most of the roads near the house were closed off to traffic. Given the number of four-wheel drives on the road, was this really necessary?

In London when it rains a bit for a couple of days, if every outdoor activity were cancelled, we would never do anything. I have spent a good many hours of my kids’ formative years watching them play football in the rain and the cold. It just requires a large umbrella, wellington boots, some warm clothes and decent washing powder to deal with the mud. Yesterday, two football matches were cancelled and we were left with nothing to do but struggle home in the traffic to watch our favourite DVDs. If this weather continues I am going to be forced to watch the whole box set of The Wire and Prime Suspect, again. This is admittedly not a bad way to spend one’s time but I thought the point of living in Cyprus was being able to sit in the sun for 350 days a year drinking wine with your friends. London with a bit of sun is not Nicosia and Nicosia with a bit of rain is certainly not London!