The rain it raineth every day

For three months, we have had virtually no rain. The papers reported every day that summer had never gone on so long. You may remember the official declaration of summer. For autumn to be declared, the daily average temperature has to be 22 degrees or less for three consecutive days. The warm balmy weather lingered on until two weeks ago when the temperature suddenly dropped, the leaves finally started to turn brown and fall off the trees and we tested our heating for the first time. Cue for the Chinese to start wearing down jackets and wrapping their children in hats, scarves and gloves. The foreigners merely added a jumper. The drop in temperature was swiftly followed by rain. A great deal of rain. It feels remarkably like London.

The headline of the 'Shanghai Daily' last week was "Ten more days of rain" after it had rained solidly for a week. Clearly, the English are in their element as they are able to talk about the weather incessantly and sport umbrellas at all times. What was more of a surprise is how much the Chinese seem to enjoy discussing the weather.

"Do you realise" said our driver "that the weather hasn't followed this pattern for 130 years?" "Er no, we weren't aware of that" said Jamie. "Well, it's true. 130 years ago, the weather was just like this". "Not 131 years ago? Not 140 years ago?". "No, 130 years ago, just the same". We laughed patronisingly until it occurred to us that the Chinese probably do have detailed climate records going that far back.

On the way to school, Eliot said "Mummy, do you know, the Chinese don't have umbrellas. They put plastic bags on their heads instead". It must be said, a fair proportion do.