Ah… I’ve posted the title of this post for about 3 days now. And I still haven’t written anything. But… better late than never!

6th of March 2009… remember this date.

We started off the day well. It was bright, it was sunny, it was good. Being the smart us, nobody bothered with the weather forecast which stated that it was going to rain. Sarah, Janice and Sue Shan went to DFO to do some big time shopping while me and Navjit went to Fitzroy Gardens for a nice stroll in the gardens. The day was beautiful. The skies were blue, the grasses were green, sun still shining. That was at about 2pm maybe?

Nav and I left Fitzroy about 2.30pm to meet Janice for this big BBQ thing organized by all the Malaysian societies in Australia. Erm… the skies were looking a bit gloomy by then. But still… no worries. We got down the tram near Flagstaff Gardens with a whole bunch of other Malaysian students. I saw SRI!!! YAY!!! (Got hit by her!) Skies began to appear really grey already. I don’t know why we weren’t scared. But we just weren't. We were happily lining up to get our registration done so that we can get … FREE FOOD!!! Us being typical Malaysians, nothing can come between us and free food. Let me tell you that our Malaysian blood really starts to show once we are in Australia =P.

Suddenly, as we were lining up, something that looks like a stone hit Janice’s shoulder. We thought someone was fooling around , trying to pick a fight =P. Within seconds… the entire world started fooling around! Ice cubes as big as stones started falling down from the sky! HAIL!!! We ran for cover behind the rubbish bins but the ice were still coming at us because the wind was blowing towards our direction. Can you imagine it? Ice, rain and wind! All at the same time!! I’m sooooooo glad I decided to wear shoes that day. I cannot imagine my legs surviving that sort of cold water.

After what seemed like an ETERNITY! Ice cubes stopped falling. But rain continued to pour! I didn’t have anything to cover myself with. The three of us were completely soaked!!! We ran for ‘shelter’ at Queen Victoria Market. Poor Janice, as we were running, her bread dropped!

Drenched and shivering!

Both me and Navjit ended up on Lygon Street sipping a cup of hot chocolate at Koko Black. It was an extremely long walk from QV market =(.

Now that I literally was caught in a hail, I don’t know whether I should be counted as lucky or unlucky, happy or unhappy, scared or excited.

I deduce that the hail happened for a reason, and for one reason only. It was to curb us Malaysians of being such a sucker for free stuff!

But, nonetheless it was definitely an experience worth remembering. I shall now leave you with a video of the hail when it was just starting to warm up.

Labels: Australia, happenings