The rain in Exeter...

So, its pretty much been raining all day. At one stage it was chucking it down. And of course this means lots of people say things like 'urrrghhh, this weather, its awful' and so on, and so forth.
But why?! Why is rain necessarily bad weather? I love rain...am I sadistic? No, and here's why. Exeter does rain very well. You'd think, this being Devon it would do sun very well. And it does. But a rainy day like today also brings Exeter out into its best. Its very hilly, so the water surges down the streets forming gigantic puddles at the bottom. Just a few minutes ago I was walking home from CU in the rain, and I noticed that there's something about the lamplight in Exeter which makes the rain look particularly stunning. Its to do with the way the orange light is reflected in the glistening damp pavements. And its to do with the way that between patches of lamplight you can only feel the rain on your face, you can't see the rain itself, but when you move into lamplight you begin to see the rain, in the form of orange streaks. I don't think people appreciate the almost mesmerising beauty of the rain. But I think thats true of a lot of things. I noticed a seagull the other day (there are a lot of them in Exeter), and I realised for the first time quite how magnificent they are when they fly. Where man hasn't gone and ruined it, where beauty can still poke its little head above the parapet, the world is a pretty spectacular place.