22/3/10 - It was raining heavily outside in the evening, and I was on my laptop ignoring the the torrerntial downpour.

Then I heard a loud thud on the roof. I let it go as I assumed that it must have been caused by the heavy droplets of rain.

5 mins later I heard another thud - this time coming from the window. Then followed by another few loud thuds, as if someone was pelting stone at the tempered glass windows. But who could have been so uncivilized?

As I peered outside, I was dumbfounded and partly amazed.



It was raining hail in Perth! No, it's not just raining hail - it's a Hailstorm!

Dozens and dozens of wrist-sized ice fallen from the sky, accompanied by the torrential rain and the deafening thunder.



It's the first time that I've witnessed hail ever since I came to Perth about 2 years ago. Perhaps this is the Aussie's answer to snow, but in a rockier, less fun kind of way.

About 15 minutes into the hailstorm, the broadband connection had gone haywire. I couldn't seem to load any page at all and was left fuming.



A good 20 minutes later, the electricity supply was cut off. I thought the lightning has caused the supply to tripped, but no - apparently, Western Power's substations were hit by the hailstorm and more than 150,000 homes in Perth were left without electricity.

Taking a good look at my house, I found a leaked roof in the dining hall. It must have crumbled under sheer weight and pressure of the hail stones. And so, we were treated with an unenviable situation at home - a leaked ceiling, no electricity and a soaking wet carpet (not to mention the musky smell that came from it). Thanks Mr. Hailstorm!!




Coincidentally, Vian and I had had an appointment with Pamela (my ex-colleague who's now with Singapore Airlines) for dinner that night. Yeah, off all days!

All of us were starving like mad yet the bus only arrived after a good 1 hour wait under the rain and in total darkness (apart from the intermittent headlamps of cars passing by). I was practically cursing under the rain until the damn bus finally arrived.



Finally, we made it to the city and met up with Pam. It's been almost 2 years since we last met and naturally, there were a lot of catching up to do over a nice, warm Korean dinner (and yeah, it's a tribute to Park Ji Sung who scored the winning goal for Man Utd the day before!!). =)

We had a good chat and soon, we bid farewell to each other.

We returned home to total darkness, but thankfully the electricity was restored just after midnight. It was a huge relief, or else we will lament over how we gonna spent the night!