What if it rains?

You park your car.  You pay your fee to park your car.  You go and do whatever it is that you need to do.  You're a bit longer than you thought you would be.  You go back to where your car was parked.  And there is no car.  All there is, is a note on the pavement, in white chalk with your registration plate number and 'Claim at Amorsolo St'.  But what if it rains?  The chalk would get washed away, and then how do you find your car?

It's raining, it's pouring

In the Philippines, there are 2 seasons: wet & dry (depending what you read).  The wet season runs from June - October and the dry November - May.

On the 10th of June, the rainy season was officially declared as 'started' by PAGASA (Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical & Astronomical Services Administration).

Within a 2 week period, we had 2 tropical storms (Dante & Emong).

"Ah, so it is true," I thought "the wet season really is wet."

It's still hot though, with a range from 26 - 33 degrees Celcius.

The storms we saw were fantastic.  Unbelievable lightening, and thunder which could be heard through our soundproof windows.  The rain too, it's the kind of rain that you could stand in for less than 30 seconds and be drenched to the core.

All that wonder aside, I was thinking to myself "will we really have to put up with this weather for the next 4 months?!  Does this mean that we'll be stuck in Manila week after week with no exciting beach adventures?"

On the plus side, I can walk 98% of my journey to work undercover.  From our building, there is a covered walkway linking us to the Greenbelt shopping area.  From there, there is an elevated, covered walkway on Dela Rosa Street (which runs parallel to the main Ayala thoroughfare) all the way to Rufino Street.  On Rufino street (when you come back down to street level), the pavement is partially covered too.  You probably won't be able to stay completely bone dry as the wind will blow the rain horizontally too, but it certainly beats being drenched.

Another plus, as I write this we are experiencing what is referred to as a monsoon break meaning that we've had clear sunny skies for the past few days.  I even managed to get a swim in after work yesterday evening!