Battle of the Brollies

After many days of glorious sunshine and what some of us had come to think of as a belated summer, this morning the heavens opened and it poured with rain.  I'm sure I've made mention of this before but when it rains in Australia it really rains.  There's no drizzle, no light spray in the air, this is full on, torrential rain.  And of course this morning it hit at rush hour, when many a person heading to work is hopping on and off public transport and generally dashing around the city.  This in turns leads to masses of people with umbrellas!  It's already a tight squeeze at the traffic lights but throw umbrellas into the mix and it's chaos.  There are big umbrellas, little umbrellas, wonky umbrellas, inside out umbrellas.  Umbrellas of all shapes and sizes.  Now there seems to be a certain umbrella etiquette that most people have got the hang of.  You anticipate the approach of another umbrella holder and you both kind of swing your brollies to one side so that you don't clash.  Or, as I've been finding, if you're a little person like me and you come across a tall person you can kind of bend your knees a little bit, they can stand on their tip toes a little bit and presto!  Another clear passing.  Unfortunately not everyone is as polite.  Some people just go barging through, spraying water all over people who are shorter than them.  And then you get the person who is so intent on hiding behind their umbrella that they're not actually looking where they're going and just end up barging straight into people - umbrella first.  Now, I know I'm not one to talk what with having walked into a telegraph pole and all but when there are other people around I always watch where I'm going.  No one wants an umbrella in the eye!