Last night in London was one of those rare nights when nature really got the best of me. I think it used to happen more when I lived in the States - the climate there is somehow more powerful than on this damp little island, where there is seldom any drama. Yesterday afternoon the temperature soared (don't get excited, only to about 73 degrees) and became muggy and oppressive. Clouds gathered and yet seemed reluctant to provide relief from the humidity. Finally when it did come - around 11pm where I was, the rain was strong but not brutal, and the sky was lit with repetitive flashes of lightning - much to my dismay, no thunder however. When the brief shower finished, the air was warm but damp... and the smell! That's the thing that got me. It's an electric, slightly musky smell...totally erotic. Well, to me at least. On these rare nights when heat and damp - or even heat and strong, cool winds collide, my pulse quickens and my skin tingles. All of my senses are heightened and I have a desire to roll naked on the ground. If you know me, you will know how unnatural this desire is in me. (I don't do camping, okay?) So obviously, this elemental furore is touching some deeply hidden pagan desire in me, innit? Does anyone else feel this way? The only other time this kind of feeling has occured is when I visited Norway a few years back during the summer. Made a trip up the west coast, through the lakes and lochs by boat, and then took a train up a mountain to a glacier. Going up on this tourist train, we rode alongside a river which was pounding fiercely with electric blue water, coming down the mountain from the melting glacier ice. I was absolutely transfixed, totally turned on by it. Almost embarrassingly so, surrounded by families and tourists of all shapes and sizes. By the time we got to the top and alighted from the train, I could barely walk. Is this just some personal sexua l prediliction that I have, or is this a more general primal urge that all humans have to reconnect with nature? I don't really understand why it's specific kinds of weather or natural phenomena that arouse me so... I certainly don't have a regular desire to combine sex and nature, for example. No doubt there is a clinical term for people like me. Hmmm.... well, whatever it is, more nights like last night would be just fabulous, thanks.