There's Never Two Without Three

Back in the Dark Ages of instant messaging when I still used MSN Messenger and took great care over my away status, I used to spend a lot of time learning French and Italian idioms that took on an entirely different meaning when translated into English and would use these as my status. To be fair, I was studying both languages at the time and it could even have been counted as work, depending on how loosely you define "work."

One of my favourites (and one of the few that I still remember) was the Italian non c'è due senza tre - literally "there's never two without three." It is actually equivalent to the English expression "it never rains, it pours" which is rather appropriate given that Monsoon Season started in Nowheresville at about 3 o'clock this afternoon.

Despite this, I spent a fairly pleasant evening catching up with two of only three friends to remain in Cambridge from the G Staircase crew of 2002. We even finished off the evening with a trip to Gardies in the pouring rain. The chips didn't taste as good as I remembered but then I usually only went to Gardies at 2 a.m. post-clubbing. Back in the day. We could could hardly believe that it has been five years since we matriculated. In fact we'll be getting our Cantab MAs in 18 months.

My poor umbrella didn't really cope well with my sodden trek back home in the dark and I think this was definitely an occasion for that very elegant French expression il pleut comme une vache qui pisse. I do love the rain when I'm not outside getting wet it in and I can hear it beating now on the roof (a roof? A window? Somewhere...), which will mean I fall asleep in seconds rather than minutes. Helpful if I'm going to make it to the gym tomorrow morning...