The Rain in Spain

A bleak rainy week is upon us Melburnians, which is the perfect time for yet another umbrella to shut up shop.

Truth to tell, this cheap little brolly from Bershka broke one of its wings a long time ago – I just couldn’t bear to part with it. I hate throwing away souvenirs, even if they cost €5 and were bought in an emergency.

A couple years ago I was in Barcelona for a few days in the middle of summer. Some freakish rainy weather hit (Audrey did say ‘the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain’), but I couldn’t bear to spend a lot of money on an umbrella that I would only use for a few days.

So I spent probably an hour hunting high and low for a cheap one (I recall rejecting a stylish €35 brolly from Mango on the grounds that the last Mango umbrella I bought – in Vietnam – broke in the first storm in Melbourne on my return) until finally, and discontentedly, I settled on this frilled and spotted version.

I can’t remember when the spoke broke, in Europe or after my return, but I know the umbrella was still pretty new. And so I couldn’t throw it out, not after its ridiculous history: all that trawling in the rain to find it, and dragging it all around Europe and all the way back home …

For two winters I persevered and wrestled with it, but no longer. I had a big clean out of my closet at the end of January, and I decided this brolly had to go – the old must make way for the new. It was a wrench, but it had to be done.

I promise tomorrow I will actually put it in the bin.