Gale tale

Who would have believed the wind would get stronger today? It has adjusted itself by a critical degree or so which means that our house is now in the path of the gusts that swoosh down from the mountain. You can hear the roar as it approaches and then all the doors slam and the curtains billow out of the windows as the wind tries to turn the house inside out! Being on stilts means that we rock and roll quite considerably and the pictures all have to be straightened once the wind has settled down.

We've survived for 30 years so I don't anticipate tipping over any time soon, but a few years ago, we were woken up in the night of a fearsome gale by the sound of metallic banging. As we don't have any metal in our construction, we thought it must be a sheet on the roof of the wendyhouse, but when we went outside onto the balcony to look, horrors! it was our neighbour two doors away! They have a flat roof and the entire structure had lifted at the edge and was folding itself up with each new blast. Corrugated iron sheeting must be one of the most dangerous things in a high wind and I could imagine being sliced in half if hit by one. The noise was horrendous and the poor neighbour, who was obviously beside herself, could be seen running up and down inside with a torch as the electricity had failed as well.

Although it was a terrible thing, it had an element of comedy about it, for us as spectators anyway, especially since the wind was blowing away from us and we weren't the ones in any danger. I suppose there is something about prospective disasters and extreme elements that attract people, a sense of being near danger and getting the adrenalin rush without suffering injury - probably why crowds gather at accidents, to gawk and agree with other bystanders that it was lucky it wasn't them.

Fortunately the neighbours suffered no injury themselves except for nearly having heart attacks and it was a story to dine out on for a long time!