Stormy surprises

A double-edged drama after a flight to Bahrain this week. After the flight was delayed on the way out because passengers had "too much hand baggage" - rivalling British Rail for the most pointless excuses - the flight back was also delayed, along with four other Gulf Air flights. When we were finally summoned to the flight, and the tannoy woman got increasingly petulant - this is your LAST call (even though we kept you waiting for ages) - the flight was further grounded for hand luggage reasons.

Having delayed further, the heavens opened and thunder and lightning overhead stopped the pilot taking off. Unfortunately, it didn't stop us flying through the storm as it reached epic proportions, turning the passengers to lime jelly.

On exiting the flight, I was so traumatised that I failed to take true note of my surroundings and stumbled into a giant Modhesh, which nearly poked my eye out - a true summer surprise.