[rain] when it sets in

She was 14, I was 15 and the other day I found some letters from her in that green ink, rounded hand and read them again, always returning to the day at the end of summer when she went back home to the country and I had to return to school, to the big smoke.

We had two hours to ourselves on that shoreline and walked in the shallows, went up onto the cliff and all of it in steady rain. Do you love swimming in the rain, the drops pinging the surface of the water, blending with the foam and tingling on the skin?

I adore it and just walking in it, both of you soaked to the skin. You can dry out later. Sailing in it is also a buzz - there's a soft whoosh to steady rain, isn't there, entirely different to patter patter or driving rain?

These days I love the expression "rain setting in" because it means going out onto the balcony, with the rain falling past, centimetres from the metre and a half wide window opening, splashing up at you from the sill, you with your coffee in your hand and I don't care any more about anything bad, only the good things, the romance of rain.

Wiki says:

Many people find the scent during and immediately after rain especially pleasant or distinctive. The source of this scent is petrichor, an oil produced by plants, then absorbed by rocks and soil, and later released into the air during rainfall. Light or heavy rain is sometimes seen as romantic.

Yes, yes, yes.

All my most romantic moments, even the apocalyptic moments have been in rain. I can even imagine the final apocalypse will be in rain. Don't say "acid rain" and spoil the mood. That's the sort of spoilsport thing I'd say.

You want to know how we parted - not my childhood sweetheart, I mean my last love not so long ago? No? Well I'm going to tell you anyway. We went to the Pyramid and there's a restaurant up top and the whole roof is glass [not one sheet, mind - there are girders].

This day the changeable set menu was excellent, the music playing was the best and the rain was thundering down on the roof. How appropriate for a final, parting meeting. She told me many months later she'd gone back there a few times hoping to recapture that time but it had been a one off.

Some people love when the rain clears, the sun peeps out and a new dawn comes. Not me. It always means her new dawn with someone else and mine alone.

I adore rain. When it sets in, that is.