Sunday 5 August 2012

Making Sparks Fly

That was, by any measure, the most exciting Holiday Club post-Sunday-service picnic I've ever known.

We had put the most enormous gazebo out on the lawn - to protect the food in the event of a rain shower, and give people a place to sit in the shade. While the sun was shining, the place was about as busy as Lord Lucan's Facebook page, as we were all outside enjoying the summery weather.

Then a light rain fell, so we nudged back into the gazebo. What could be better than a place of shelter in a light shower on an English summer's day?

Then the lightning started. And the hail storm. At which point the group divided into three.

The first (led by Burton Dasset) claimed that the metal frame of the gazebo formed a Faraday Cage, so we would all be safe as houses.

The second group (including Charlii) suggested that in fact the saturated nature of the fabric in the gazebo roof, combined with an earthed metal structure, would make the gazebo a perfect lightning-attractor.

The third group (led by me) just went in the Great House. Seemed a lot more sensible than lurking out there arguing about physics.

1 comment :

  1. Frizzled hair, no eye brows and red complexions.

    Typical effects of mild lightning strike. Severe involves bbq'd effects, which I won't go into on the grounds that it might upset me.

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