A river runs through it

St Kilda Beach Night Market February 2010. First date in February, the 4th, was cancelled because there was a real threat of storms and rain - none came and it was a warm balmy evening but no market. Second date, the 11th, yesterday, went ahead.

I arrived at 3.00 o'clock to set up and was ready to rock and roll by 4.00pm. Mike would be joining me at around 5.30pm and we would sell sell sell.

Everyone at the market was a bit worried about the forecast which had suggested torrential rain and major thunderstorms, and reports started coming in of flooding in Richmond, downpours on the major motorways. It seemed like we had got off lightly. Then at around 4.10 the sky went very very dark:

Then the heavens quite literally opened and I took some film of what happened over the next 30 minutes of a serious storm:

and

and finally:

It rained non stop for an hour and then brightened slightly, but the end result was that our stall looked like this:

Mike arrived at 5.30 and after a beer, some cheese crisps and with the rain starting up again we called it a day at 6.30pm.

Observations

• The Robian Stall is 100% waterproof
• The committee got it wrong
• 4 out of 8 markets at St Kilda have had rain or been cancelled
• Plastic boxes are a very very good idea
• Even cactus fridge magnets don't sell when its wet, although they probably enjoy the drenching
• Larrakin umbrellas have now gone up the priority list. We will call them the St Kilda
• Next business venture will be cupcakes