July 25, 2007 at 5:05 pm (emergencies, life, people, t.v., weather, weird)
I have just been watching Richard and Judy and included on the guest list were Lembit Opik and his ‘Cheeky Girls’ girlfriend. This was a strange sight in itself. But then Lembit got out his harmonica and started playing the blues, at which point Richard decided to show us all his blues singing skills. My sister and I were left open mouthed, especially as Richard improvised the song and was singing about Judy waking up in some kind of mood. You can imagine how this was greeted by Miss Finnigan. Then Lembit had to prove that he could tell the difference between the Cheeky Girls, the final test was to see a picture of the bottom of one of them and he got it wrong. Lembit then asked if Richard would recognise Judy’s bottom (fully clothed I hasten to add, phew!) Richard said no. Judy said she would recognise Richard’s, so I can see this being a part of the show in the next few days. Am I full of anticipation, or is it just the dodgy water I may have been drinking recently?
Talking of which, there have been reports of kids weeing in the bowsers put out for us all and the one over the road from me was stabbed last night! I can’t believe how selfish and stupid some people can be. Apparently the Chief Constable of Gloucestershire has said there is to be a zero tolerance approach to these imbeciles. At work our addicts are having to forgo their luxury of a cup of water with their methadone and they are having to drink it straight from the bottle. We are running out of baby wipes and anti-bacterial hand gel is being kept behind the counter and given out one per person. The dry shampoo comes in tomorrow! We are due to be in this position for about another week and a half, I have put some buckets out in the garden as it is due to rain (again) tonight and tomorrow. As my sister said, when the water comes back on the national grid will get a shock. Showers and washing machines will be in full use! I can’t wait!
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July 24, 2007 at 8:07 am (emergencies, weather, wow)
I just want to say thank you to the army and navy for helping to keep my electricity on. They worked throughout the night to stop the main power station for this area being flooded, and they did it… by 2 inches!
The Gloucestershire Echo tells the story better
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July 23, 2007 at 6:06 pm (life, people, weather)
On the 19th July I was looking forward to going to Berkeley Castle for the medieval festival. It was a beautiful sunny day, so hot that I had to have all the windows open and the fan on. When I went to bed though everything changed. The skies turned black and the wind came up. By midnight the rain had started. It was torrential. I woke up at 6am (as always) and the rain was still there and still as powerful. I realised that Berkeley wouldn’t be happening, so I went to work. All day it rained and rained. One delivery man said, ‘this isn’t rain, this is biblical. There will be a swarm of locusts tomorrow.’ We laughed, as at that time we thought it would end. By the time I had finished work it still hadn’t ended though.
My sister and I had arranged to see the new Harry Potter film and then go to Waterstone’s to pick up the new book. When my sister came to pick me up it was still raining and the main road into town was at a standstill as the M5 had been closed. Luckily we used a different road to get into town which wasn’t that wet at all. It was still spitting a little but nothing terrible. Instead of going to Waterstone’s in summer clothes though I was carrying an umbrella and wearing a scarf.
The next morning was interesting. I went to work and expected a normal day. The first thing that happened that made us think something wrong had happened was when an addict from Tewkesbury came in (just so you know, I work in a pharmacy that is part of the methadone scheme) He told us that he couldn’t get into Tewkesbury to get his script, we told him the best thing to do was to go to the out of hours surgery at A&E. Then we found out that the chemist round the corner was closed as the pharmacist couldn’t get in and another pharmacy in town was closed because the pharmacist had had a heart attack. We ended up with the main substance mis-use doctor in the pharmacy writing out scripts for all the addicts who should have been elsewhere. Thankfully we closed only 5 minutes late. Billy came to pick me up with Maisie, we went into town, had lunch, did a bit of shopping and went home. The rest of the evening was very calm and relaxing.
All of us had a nice lie-in Sunday morning. We got up at about 9.30, which for me is very late, had brekkie and watched tv. Then my mobile started ringing. It was Maisie’s friend’s mum, she told me to watch the news. When I did I found that the rain had caused so much more damage than any of us had thought. Tewkesbury was completely cut off from anyone and the water treatment centre that supplied Tewkesbury, Gloucester and Cheltenham had been flooded. This meant that once the clean, treated water had run out that was it, no more water.
So far the water hasn’t run out in Cheltenham (where I am) but it’s run out in Gloucester and Tewkesbury, it’ll be us tonight. A lot of Gloucester also has no electricity, the navy and the army stopped more electric from being cut off. I am stocked up for a while, but it may not come back on for a week or so. At work one of our delivery drivers said he has been given a stock of water for any pharmacy that needs it and that it will be on his van for the next week.
We are due to have some sun tomorrow, but then Wednesday it will rain again. I just feel so thankful that Cheltenham has been spared the terrible floods that have sunk Tewkesbury, that we have drinkable water for a little longer and that we have electricity. It all feels a little surreal when I see the pictures on tv, but then it feels so very real when my friends call to tell me how it is in Gloucester and my nephew had to be evacuated from Tewkesbury. Any more rain will be just tragic.
*Edit* It is now 7.40pm and we have no water either.
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