What we've done to offend Canada I don't know, but they have flung some righteous shit across the pond at us on the airstream and it hit the fan this morning with a vengeance, billed as "the worst storm in years" by the jolly old BBC.
It is chuffing breezy in Westminster at the moment and due to get much, much worse over the next day or three.
Predictably, as I have a three and a half hour journey in to work, I arrived to find an empty office and the phones ringing off the hook with the lazy bastards who live only a few miles out of town using the storm as an excuse for a lie-in.
Now a few have straggled in with tales of trees across roads and rail lines blocked. Hey ho.
Astonishingly, my stupidly expensive "Storm-Shield" brolly lived up to its hype and survived my walk up the Thames (keeping me tolerably dry into the bargain), passing as I did several dozen people desperately flailing their trashed, cheapo brollies like semaphore signallers getting electric shocks and a load more tattered remains stuffed into litter bins, broken skeleton spokes reaching sadly skyward.
There were a couple of moments when I thought I'd be flying to Norway, Mary Poppins style, but now I'm here in the warm with latte and croissant.
Whew …
We're due eighty mile an hour winds gusting to something ridiculous when this stupid Canadian import really gets its act together, so whether I (or the brolly) make it home tonight is a matter of some debate.
If I disappear off the radar for a while, I'll be either stuck on a train, sleeping on the office floor or at home with no power (and possibly no roof).
Ah, springtime in England …Or breakfast-time in Cornwall … photo stolen from BBC News website.
I'm glad I no longer live on the coast.
At least I've not got twenty inches of snow like poor Robyn.
Yikes!
19 comments:
holymoley, sugar!!!! stay safe and stay warm!
I'm safe, thank you Savannah. My problem is that I'm safe in the office and I want to be safe at home, three and a half hours journey away.
D'oh!
Mind you, to be fair, your colleagues who live in the south probably had it worse today and maybe there were trees all over their roads? Just playing Devil's Advocate here...
I think i'm about the same as you, in Norfolk not London, during the night it was 'wild, man' and today not much better but so far no damage. Of course if Wales floods, then we will next week as it comes tumbling cheerfully down the hills towards us. Hey ho as you would say.
You as Mary Poppins is indeed an amusing image, thanks for that. Quite cheered me up. Hope you get out of the sodden south tonight Dive. If the only train you can get is to Cheltenham, you're welcome to my tiny spare room.
Must pop over to check Robyn is above white level now...
80 miles an hour? that's a low-grade hurricane, Dive. Can trains even run in that kind of wind? Yikes.
Hey, ho. We've already got 24 cancellations and a tree down on the line in Suffolk, so I'll just keep an eye on my rail website and hope I can get home.
If not, I'll be sleeping on the office floor.
Poo all over that.
hoping you found a safe route home, sugar! failing that, a cot instead of the floor for tonight. there should be a lounge with a sofa somewhere on site!
Those darned Canadians and their weather!
Sounds similar to our Nor'Easters that we get. Not fun at all.
Batten down the hatches! Stick some bricks in your pockest to keep you from becoming a projectile.
Glad you're safe Dive...stay warm!
"I hear hurricanes ablowing.
I know the end is coming soon.
I fear rivers over flowing.
I hear the voice of rage and ruin"
"BEWARE the Ides of March"
LOL...
Savannah: thanks for the wishes. I did indeed get home after a loooong journey (having left early when I found they'd cancelled my train).
And the power had been off all day in the village but it came back on shortly before I got home according to my neighbour, so pretty lucky all round.
Shazza: Hee hee hee! The thought of something my shape and sagginess becoming a projectile cracked me up. Talk about Shock and Awe! If I hit a building at speed, man would that be messy!
Utsav: Beware of young men who can quote CCR songs!
How's the job hunting going? If you need the kind of reference that says "Employ this guy! He's totally cool and he looks good in all sorts of hair styles." then you know where to come.
Think I'll link to this page in my resume! :)
Hee hee hee hee hee!
good on you, sugar! glad you made it home!
So did you make it home safely?
Seriously, what the heck is going on? I thought it was spring time already?
Hmmm... latte and croissant. I'd love a mug of cafe mocha and pain au chocolat :D
joy
A Pinay In England
Your Love Coach
I, Woman
"Bloody Canadians" as M.B would say.
"Mary Poppins" - I have an image of you Dive in a frilly dress with a rather pompous hat, white lace up boots and a rather large carpet bag. Hee, hee.
Suddenly our heat wave seems much more tolerable.
Thanks, Savannah!
Joy: I made it home safe and sound, thank you, albeit after a marathon journey.
Mme: I'll look in my wardrobe and see if I can find something of that description. I f I can, I'll post a photo, but please don't get your hopes up.
Hee hee
This is all tremendously exciting, Dive, old son.
One should set up a model 'appartement' at the office for the occasional sleep-over, mate. We don't want you and the super umbrella ending up in Norway.
One doesn't think of fæces and Norway in the same breath, but better you stay at home and straighten out these devastations.
That photo from BBC news could have been an advertisement from a window cleaning company?
Perhaps we should simply swap climates; in the name of good international relations. We're having 105° on the weekend, and no rain for the rest of the century.
Can we send some over?
Bon chance, mon ami !
Heehee, Monsieur; the weather is mad all over Blogville at the moment.
As for sleeping at the office, there is always a fight over who gets the bed in the sickbay and it's always the stupid girls who win. Dammit.
And they always refuse to share, too. Swizz!
So...if you had to spend the night on the floor, a spoonful of sugar should have let the medicine go down just fine....
Glad you made it...
Chim chim chiree
Dammit!
Now I'm going to be talking like Dick Van Doike all day.
Thank goodness I'm at home so no-one can hear.
Post a Comment