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Published: June 26th 2008
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I think the title pretty much sums it up!! I arrived in Columbus on Tuesday night and Joanna met me at the airport. As Joanna is studying and working loads at the mo, I was left to my own devices during the day, which unsurprisingly consisted of Wimbledon and the Anyhow, in the evening we decided to go out to eat before meeting up with some of Joanna's friends at a Karioke bar. We didn't stay there that long, as the main reason for going out was to go and see Mike Perkins play his usual Wednesday Night gig at the Scarlet & Grey.
I should explain, last time I was in Columbus, 3 years ago, Marlis and Joanna introduced me to Mike Perkins at the Scarlet & Grey, and I loved him. So much so that I bought his cd there and then. I even friended him on MySpace, and talked to him on there. So obviously I jumped at a chance to see him play live again. During the day it had rained pretty heavily, but as we were walking to Scarlet & Grey, the weather seemed to have perked up...
Halfway through the first set Joanna
went outside for a fag, and when she came back in she said that the Tornado sirens were going off. As the music was quite loud we were unable to hear anything inside the bar. As word began to spread around the staff and clientele the mood began to change a little. The tvs in the bar switched from ESPN to a local news channel which was covering the progress of the tornado. When I looked at the screen all I could see was a rainbow of colours and a map of the Columbus area. I looked to Joanna for confirmation that the fuscia pink mass heading our way was indeed a tornado... she agreed, before admitting she had never seen anything of that colour before. The jokes about her having her last beer soon dried up as we realised that it may actually be serious. Serious enough for the staff to ask Mike to announce the news to those in the bar who hadn't yet realised what was going on.
At the interval, all of a sudden the heavens opened. I came back from the bathroom to find people glued to the windows watching the waters gushing down
the High Street at a tremendous pace. The thunder and lightening were spectaculor. So obviously, my first thought was
I have to get a foto of this. So we tried. The fotos aren't brilliant, but you can still tell that it was pissing down.
As the second set started the weather seemed to subside, but only for another mini-storm (for want of a better word) headed our way. We soon realised that this was going to be the pattern for a while and began debating the best time to run the one block to Joanna's appartment. Having realised that it would be futile to wait for a break in the rain we just decided to go for it. Within 30 seconds of leaving the bar we were drenched and the water at times was halfway up our calves. And still the weather didn't abate. At around 2am, just as I was dropping off to sleep a huge crash of thunder broke, just above the roof of Joanna's tree-house appartment. I don't mind admitting that I was mildly worried!!
So I may not have seen the
eye of the storm twister style, but I'm sure the Tornado Siren counts
for something!!
Also, random event of the night, during the second half we got talking to Mike Perkin's girlfriend, and discovered that not only was the English, but that she comes from Box. I'm not sure who was more shocked at finding a fellow Wiltshiran (ok, I just made that word up - what is the word for someone from Wiltshire?!) in the Mid-West!
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