April Showers
It is normally a couple. Elderly, with sombre but kind faces.
They sit in a middleclass car, blue or red, carefully parked by the road, the nose of the car pointing towards the sea.
They have just finished picknicking, crumpled greasy sandwichwrappers are scattered all over the dashboard and two plastic thermos cups balance right behind the screen. The look on their faces is an interesting mixture of emptiness and contentment. If you try to peek into their car, they can become embarrassed quite quickly, so it is better just to cast a quick glance and then look away again.
Englishness in a pure and interesting form: polite, withheld, quiet, self content and slightly odd. Sitting in a warm car while it is raining outside is a very cosy thing to do in itself, but sitting in a car while it is raining outside and staring at the sea—that is a quite unique situation.
The wetness that is pattering on to the roof of the car is beautifully connected to the vast wet pool of seawater right in front of the couple’s eyes. There must be an intense liquid longing to connect with the sea forever, to connect the sound of the raindrops on top of the car with the gushing of the waves and the silence of the horizon.
26 seconds of English rain (YouTube)
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||
 |
 |
|
||||||
 |
|
|||||||
 |
|
|||||||
 |
|
|||||||
 |
|
|||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||||
 |
|
|||||||
