Weather

Drying out

We had a fair bit of it yesterday afternoon.  Storms were forecast, but this one hung around for a good hour, giving the streets a much needed wash down.  (Don't worry, though: the local dogs have been working overtime to restore it to normal.)   We encountered an unexpected footnote today at Carcassonne: we dropped in for lunch at the airport, and as we parked, Martyn noticed a Ryanair 737 on the apron with all its doors and emergency exit hatches open. We asked our waiter what the story was, and he told us that it had landed around the time of yesterday's storm, and the rain had been so heavy that it had flooded the interior, preventing it from taking off.  A number of chaps in Ryanair hi-visibility waistcoats were ambling between the Boeing and a nearby Manx-registered Learjet, which had presumably been sent to ferry them somewhere.  As we lunched, a technician jacked the Learjet up, removed a wheel and spent half an hour or so fiddling with the hub.  The wheel was on again and  the covers were off the engines when we left, but we guess it would have been quite a while before it was ready to fly.  The chapter of accidents may have caused some gnashing of teeth behind Mr O'Leary's desk.  

Nice bit of dumb insolence when the next Ryanair flight was waiting to leave.  The pilot of a little cabin monoplane  was cleared to take off before the Boeing.  Rather than turn left on the runway where he'd have had the thick end of 1500m available, he turned right and taxied calmly to the end of the runway, executed a slow and elegant full turn and proceeded to take off in about 400m.  The Boeing, which was already 20 minutes late leaving, stood on the apron for another 5 minutes, burning Mr O'Leary's precious kerosene. 

The new bathroom window seemed at first to withstand the onslaught of yesterday's storm.  Only later did I notice the familiar damp patches spreading over the plaster.  So, many months and thousands of Euros later, we may be home but we still aren't dry.