The Great British Barbeque

Once again we are set for more 'tropical' weather this summer. Another way of dressing up the fact that it's going to be shit. But despite the weather there are still people crazy enough to try and maintain some kind of normal summertime behaviour despite the fact they are prone to being pissed on, without warning from a very great height. However, I feel it's a testament to the great British character that in heavy rain some people still want to make their barbecues happen, they've just traded their Hawaiian shirts for rain macs and wellies. Why haven't they invent a waterproof barbecue?

There is no better time than summer to get together with friends over a hot barbie and a cold beer, but this is not what I had in mind. But the show must go on, at least for some people, and the city of Bristol has defiantly lifted it's middle finger at all those black clouds. We will have our party, whatever the weather! For while most people are at home nursing the Sunday headache, watching the rain, sunshine, rain, sunshine, several local street parties have emerged around St.Pauls and Monpellier.

Now this is simultaneously a heart warming and an agonising experience to watch from the ivory tower which is the balcony of my flat. One man lights a barbecue on the terrace and has obviously gone to great lengths to prepare this feast. No sooner has he got the damn thing lit and the black clouds start to approach like a surrounding mob. He gingerly adds a couple of burgers and then, bam! The heavens start to open and what was a sunny lunchtime barbecue turns into a soggy mess.

However, unperturbed the gentleman moves his barbecue under some shelter and refreshes the burgers. It's all starting to look like a washout, no one's going to turn up for wet seats and soggy burgers, but you've got to admire the guys spirit. He carries on cooking solo, but wait! From the dark blanket of rain emerges a figure, and then another! Whether it was out of sympathy, or pure bloody-mindedness before long there was an entourage of people queuing up for what was probably now, sorrier than a MacDonalds burger.

Will barbecues and umbrellas become synonymous with our perception of summer? The Australian's must think we've gone mad, listening to Mowtown and dancing in the rain waving our barbecue tongs in the air. But still, it falls in line with that traditional 'stiff upper lip' mentality that I thought fell out of fashion when we handed over cricket to the West Indies. A kind of stubbornness that I guess draws people to a public barbecue in the pissing rain. If I was wearing a hat, I'd tip it to them, but I'm sensibly inside writing this instead of keeping the dream alive. Shine on you crazy diamonds.