Hujan batu di negara orang?

There is 1 phrase in Malay,

"Hujan emas di negara orang,
hujan batu di negara sendiri.. lebih baik di negara sendiri.."

Means that.. although everything is great in other country, you will always feel that your own country is much-much better than that. This phrase is for you to treasure your origin, no matter where you are. (correct me if I'm wrong)

"hujan batu" in that phrase means "hail showers".

"batu" in malay means rock/stone. I used to imagine hail showers is where you can see stone falling down from skies and obviously it will hurt you. You will die from serious injury during "hujan batu". hahahhaa.. Actually, Hail is a form of precipitation which consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice - wikipedia. Hail can be as big as softball and destroy your car.

(image taken from : http://pasc.met.psu.edu/PA_Climatologist/extreme/Hail/PEMA_hail.html )

Luckily hail in Norwich is not that bad. It's just as big as salt and melt when it touches any surfaces. Just like normal rain, but in a form of small little ice. Here is the pictures..

(image taken from http://www.norwichdailyphoto.com/2008/03/28/planet-earth/)

I have my own version of hail showers, taken last Sunday (6 April 2008).