Oh how wrong can you be?
There we all were, suckered in by the promise of a wonderful summer reminiscent of the long hot days of our childhood. As the credit crunch crunched the pain was eased by the thought of a much hyped 'barbecue summer' when friends and families could get together, sit and talk much long into a warm evening.
But alas, this promise was based upon seasonal forecasting which we now know to be a 'relatively new science'. It spewed out the odds and told us that we had a 65% chance of a scorching summer. We grabbed these odds with both hands; we held on tight and believed - completely ignoring the 35% that said it could all go horribly wrong.
Off we all went and booked our 'staycations' as the economy shrank and we all began to feel the pinch. After all, it was going to be a blinder of a summer.... I booked a 'glamping' holiday with friends and family in the full knowledge that, for each of the 3 years prior, our Cornish breaks had been plagued by driving rain and high winds.
But this year was going to be better. The Met Office said so. And by crikey, we deserve it!
But hang on a second.
Could this have been a clever little governmental ploy? After all, what better way to give the creaking economy a boost than to keep all of our hard earned sangria and paella cash here. In Blightey. So we could spend it all on fish and chips and warm beer.
Now I'm not for a moment suggesting that this is what happened, but it would make sense. All Gordon needed to do when he saw the economy going into freefall was to pick up the phone to the Met Office and ask them very politely to tell all of the media that we're in for a long, hot summer.
Hey presto, everyone decides to stay home, with what little remaining cash they have.
Strangely, this isn't a new idea; it's probably happened on a smaller scale more times than you'd like to think. I saw it happen once when a rather large outdoor event had been organised in a town that shall remain nameless.
It was around Christmastime. 3000 people were expected to attend the event and it was raining. Hard. So someone (who shall also remain nameless) had a word with the local radio station and asked them if they wouldn't mind changing their weather forecast - just a little bit. Thankfully they obliged and 3000 people turned up and got soaked.
The long and short of it is that I love the optimism we display as a nation; it's what makes us great. We know the weather will be rubbish on bank holidays; but we still cling on to the hope that it won't be. We plan barbeques and when it rains, we deny it. And eventually, when rains so hard that it would be foolish to deny it any longer, we put up an umbrella and continue to make charcoal out of sausages. What other nation would demonstrate such resolve?
Hold you heads up high people. We're going to have another wash out summer but it won't stop us trying to enjoy ourselves - we'll just drink more!