The weather...



  •  After a particularly hot summer, we had no less than three thunderstorms in the span of 24 hours. Now, this is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, so buildings are everywhere, including on roads that have been built at the bottom of a valley. Mind, there aren't any rivers here, but there are a couple of flash floods every year, and over the course of millenia, these have carved out dry river beds.

    The first thunderstorm, at 5:00 PM on Sunday, wasn't that much of a problem. The second one, at 5:00 AM the next day, flipped the circuit breaker of our house and because of an unfortunate design of the drain on our roof (single point of exit, next to the door downstairs, and that exit was somewhat obstructed), caused a veritable waterfall inside our house. Not fun.

    The third thunderstorm hit at about 3:00 PM on Monday, and caused yet again a flash flood in the road where I work. I captured a couple of videos, including this one:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqk2uA1yoNs

    The black thing is a brand new and rather expensive (well, it is no longer) Range Rover Evoque. Then there's a light truck for transporting glass. Somewhere in between the two should be a white car.

    Anyway, we didn't get much done that day, not because of the weather, but because of the second storm. See, it hit our data centre. And tripped the fire alarm. Which released the argon. Straight on top of our SAN. Release gas from pressure, rapid loweing of the temperature, condensation of moisture... that's at least my theory.

    Some days, you wich you'd just stayed in bed (after getting all the water out your front door, that is).



  •  STOP LIVING THERE. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE.





  • @dhromed said:

    STOP LIVING THERE. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE.
    24 paid leave days and 14 public/national holidays a year comes to mind. Although a couple of years ago, they changed it that you no longer get compensated with extra days of leave if a public/national holiday falls in the weekend. Other than that, the climate is like that of California (Mediterranean climate), but without the wildfires, earthquakes or Hollywood.

     



  • @Severity One said:

    @dhromed said:

    STOP LIVING THERE. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE.
    24 paid leave days and 14 public/national holidays a year comes to mind. Although a couple of years ago, they changed it that you no longer get compensated with extra days of leave if a public/national holiday falls in the weekend. Other than that, the climate is like that of California (Mediterranean climate), but without the wildfires, earthquakes or Hollywood.

    But the occasional life-changing floods?



  • @zelmak said:

    @Severity One said:

    @dhromed said:

    STOP LIVING THERE. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE.
    24 paid leave days and 14 public/national holidays a year comes to mind. Although a couple of years ago, they changed it that you no longer get compensated with extra days of leave if a public/national holiday falls in the weekend. Other than that, the climate is like that of California (Mediterranean climate), but without the wildfires, earthquakes or Hollywood.

    But the occasional life-changing floods?

    Windows 8 is pretty good to use! It's just that it occasionally hoses random parts of my hard drive.

     



  • @dhromed said:

     STOP LIVING THERE. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE.

    They're all terrified of Joe Don Baker.

    Everything I ever wanted to know about Malta I learned from Mystery Science Theater 3000.



  •  Whahahaha! Brilliant! I immediately shared that one Facebook!

    For the record, I'm Dutch, married to a Maltese woman (who largely agress with the description given above).



  • @Severity One said:

    Anyway, we didn't get much done that day, not because of the weather, but because of the second storm. See, it hit our data centre. And tripped the fire alarm. Which released the argon. Straight on top of our SAN. Release gas from pressure, rapid loweing of the temperature, condensation of moisture... that's at least my theory.

    Argon in the data center? Do you also have car batteries instead of a diesel generator? And icepacks duct-taped to ventilators for cooling?

    Here is the Car Analogy for your story:

    Anyway, we didn't get much done that day, not because of the weather, but because of the second storm. See, it hit our garage door. Which fell on the car hood. Which damaged the carburetor. Straight on top of our engine. Release dust from air filter, rapid rust on the timing belt, condensation of the MAP sensor... that's at least my theory.


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