The best laid schemes of mice in wonderland

The moral of today's tale: Never trust a five day weather forecast.

I'd organised a picnic for this evening, in a nearby park, with just a small group of friends (from whence sprung my recent obsession with the fine art of cucumber sandwich preparation). Not just a picnic, in fact, but an outing.

Several weeks ago I chanced upon a review of a production of "Alice Through The Looking Glass" performed in parks throughout London by a company named "London Bubble". The review was glowing, as were others I found, and the concept of following Alice's adventures (quite literally - the audience trails the characters around the park as scenes wend on) sounded quite delightful. I saved the review, and promptly forgot about it until last week, when I fortuitously discovered that the production was due to shortly play in a park just around the corner from where I am now. A quick check found the weather report singing merry songs of long and lazy and bright summer evenings. I could hardly resist. Events fell neatly into place, just so, and with a minimum amount of effort I found I'd arranged a picnic. The fates were obviously on my side, I thought.

Actually, the fates were just lulling me into a false sense of security.

Leaving work this evening, I noticed a few small splashes of rain water on my face. Nothing serious, and certainly not grounds for concern. Unlike the torrential deluge that followed moments later. The walk to the train station from work takes me 13 and half minutes. By the time I approached the station, a full blown thunderstorm had developed, with terrific bursts of lightning flashing across the skies every minute or so. The rain, if anything, had increased in intensity - it's fair to say that I waded along the last part of the road. This was not the balmy summers evening promised me by the bbc. And worse was to come.

Flash flooding along the lines, combined with a junction taken down by a lightning strike, ground London's already shaky transport infrastructure to a complete halt, adding two extra hours of monotonous travelling to my journey home (bear in mind that I was quite literally soaked to the skin this entire time).

I didn't make it to the park in time. It had stopped raining by the time I got home, so there's a possibility the show might have gone ahead, though I hope it was cancelled so I can reschedule tickets for tomorrow instead.

Considering the high hopes I had for tonight, it turned out to be a somewhat disappointing evening...