Floods

We are fortunate to live well away from any danger of flooding.  The unceasing rain caused havoc in many areas and much misery.  I can just remember when the Thames burst its banks in 1928.  Water flowed up our street inundating the little cottages below us.  This was followed by a plague of rats, one of which made a nest in our chest of drawers.  Flossie, our dog, killed it.

When I lived in West Dulwich in south London our Victorian house had a large, deep cellar leading off the scullery. This small scullery had three doors and I suffered terribly with chilblains caused by the draught from garden and cellar when doing the cooking and washing etc.  In the cellar we kept the coal and coke delivered by horse and cart.  On occasions the cellar would be flooded, not deep, but a nuisance.  The river Effra was converted to the sewerage system in the 1800s to carry away rainwater and now ran underground.  Part of its course ran through West Norwood and through the large cemetery. where incidentally, Mrs. Beeton is buried,  and on under our road.  It went on through Herne Hill under Effra Road to Brixton's Water Lane. then to Kennington and into the Thames at Vauxhall.  One of London's underground rivers.

I had to  go down a number of steps with a bucket and shovel to fetch the coal and coke upstairs from the cellar.  Not a nice job if the fuel was wet.  On one occasion I brought the coke up for the kitchen boiler and was amazed to see three little frogs hopping round the kitchen floor.

Georgette Heyer Again

I have just listened to BBC radio 4 programme "A Good Read" where they discussed Georgette Heyer's books.  How I longed to join in and champion her novels!  The lady presenter loved her, the young man was fairly luke-warm but my lovely Peter White, the blind broadcaster was, s most disparaging.  Only to be expected, I suppose, because the books are, after all, women's books.  But what a lovely comforting read! No mention was made of the humour in the exchanges between the main characters, especially in "The Reluctant Widow"  and "The Grand Sophy".  Who cares if the plots are basically the same. This can be said of Jane Austin and many others.  These books are "A Good Read".
   

A Family Day

Yesterday was a very happy family occasion.  My son and daughter-in-law came from Folkestone where they are spending the long half term holiday.    The French schools have a fortnight off at this time.
Despite the proliferation of electronic computer games the boys (and grown-ups) spent a happy day playing Snakes and Ladders, Ludo, Dominoes, Rummy and other card games, playing the Ukulele and singing English nursery rhymes.  What conclusions do we draw from this?  That the art of amusing ourselves without the ubiquitous Telly is not yet lost!
The boys have had an exciting week.  They were invited to a Hallowe'en party by a friend of their big sister where they dresses up and had a sweetie hunt.  Then they went to a fireworks party and had lots of nice food.

Scene:   The playground of a school in France.  Two teachers are talking.  The first teacher says  "I have a little English boy in my class".  "So have I" says the second teacher.  "I think they should meet each other" says the first teacher and calls " Lloyd, come here. I want you to meet Hamilton.  He is English like you".  "I know" says Lloyd.  "He is my brother".

Power Cuts

I suppose what I wrote about the storm of 1987 was small beer compared with what has just happened in the U.S,A. Being without electricity is catastrophic.  Everything we use these days seems to depend on a regular supply of electricity.
Looking at a diary entry for November 1950 I see that we had a power cut and I was having a frantic hunt for matches and candles. Power cuts happened quite often and would last for two or three hours so I should have been prepared. We were living in a large house in London and I had just brought a load of  rain soaked washing in from the garden which I would have to dry by the fire. (No tumble drier in those days).  There was a shortage of coke for the kitchen boiler , a brute to get going anyway, so there was no heat in the kitchen and no hot water. I had a new gas cooker and we had just had a delivery of coal for the sitting room fire.  The coal was delivered by horse and cart.  There was a horse trough opposite our house where the horse stopped regularly for a drink of water.  One winter's day the water in the trough was frozen and the coalman came in my kitchen with an enormous bucket to get some water for his horse.
Even so long after the war ended there was still a shortage of many things.  It would appear that I was obsessed  with buying an extra blanket as I was expecting my sister-in-law and family to stay.  I had been to Brixton and Croydon but no blankets were to be had.  As it turned out it didn't matter as the boys got measles so they didn't come.  Life was very fraught in those days.  Now if you have the money ( or even if you don't) you can go to the shops and buy whatever you want.

Time

I am still somewhat disorientated  by the changing of the clocks. I would prefer that we stayed with summer time. I don't like the long dark evenings.  I know the Scots and the Islanders don't agree but I can't see why they can't have their own time changing at the border.  We manage quite well with an hour's difference with France which from the south of England is only 21 miles away.   Time zones work in the U.S.A. and in Russia. Perhaps if the Scots get independence that's what they will do. When I worked shift duties during the war I always seemed to be on night duty when the clocks went back which meant working another hour.  When the clocks went forward I always seemed to be in my bed thereby missing an hour's sleep.  Ah well! Such is life.

Hurricane ?

25 years ago on October 16th Don and I spent several very early hours sitting downstairs in our living room  trying to shut out the noise of falling tiles, banging gates and rolling dustbins as we sat out the Great Storm of 1987.  It had been an evening of torrential rain and high winds which grew steadily worse and woke us in the early hours of the morning with a noise like a hundred banshees howling and banging.  The rattle of tiles coming off the roof made us decide it would be prudent and safer to spend the rest of the night downstairs.   There was a danger that the chimney stack might come crashing through the roof. It was pitch dark as the electricity had failed so we sat there by candlelight praying for the storm to pass.
Daylight showed scenes of desolation.  Trees were leaning over at odd angles though because we were sheltered none had fallen in our garden. Cars had been blown over. Shocked neighbours were surveying the damage.
We found out that whole swathes of woodland round about had been flattened.  Shop windows had been blown in and goods ruined.  Worst hit in the storm was the south east, Kent and Sussex.  A large Sealink ferry was driven on to the beach at Folkestone.  Caravan parks were wrecked and caravans reduced to matchwood.  Buses and lorries were overturned.  roads and railways were blocked by fallen trees.  Because of this people struggled to get to work and many businesses were closed while the staff who had managed to get there spent the day clearing up
Our local builder found a tarpaulin to put on our roof to keep out the rain until repairs could be done.  Everyone was in need of a builder. Our man sent his very elderly father to replace our tiles and mend the gutters which had fallen off.  I was really worried to see this tottery old chap up a ladder but he made a good job of it.
I believe about 20 people lost their lives.  Looking afterwards at the terrible damage the storm had wrought I am  surprised it was not more.  We can do nothing when faced with the forces of nature..

Random Thoughts

My computer has had a fit of the sulks for a couple of days.  It would not do anything we asked it to.  We had to send for the computer doctor.  I remember my neighbour way back in the 1980s receiving a computerised bill for one thousand pounds instead of  ten pounds and saying "computers don't have a soul to be damned or a backside to be kicked".  (Only he did use a more vernacular word than backside.)

I am still being amused by TV subtitles.  Yesterday  a lady said she spent her time pulling the heads off  chrysanthemums.  The subtitler said pulling the heads off flowers.  I suppose he couldn't spell chrysanthemums!

Today has been another lovely autumn day and I sat in the sunshine enjoying my lunch.  I walked, rather slowly, to the shops and came back , even more slowly, after sitting down in the Co-op.  There are three seats for weary customers to recuperate after trailing round the shelves, and in my case, peering at the labels where the writing seems to get smaller each time I shop.  However, the assistants are very nice and helpful and will scour the shelves looking for what I want.  To return to the seats - they are made of metal and most welcome but rather cold.  I think they should provide cushions.