Wet

Sunday brought torrential rain to some parts of Surrey. My housemate and I had gone to Cardiff to watch the footie, and returned to find all reasonable routes home had been blocked by localised flooding. In Ash and Chobham and Brookwood, the drains had failed and were spewing water back on to the road. After hours of detours and queueing whilst half-drowned coppers waved us cheerfully in various directions we finally made it home. That evening I packed a few things up because I was due to be working at her office on Monday.

At 8.30 am the call came to say that during the night the river behind her office had burst it's banks and the whole place was 14 inches deep in river water and raw sewage. By the time we reached the office a few hours later the water had mostly drained out, leaving this distinct tide mark for all (and insurers) to inspect.


Total devastation inside. It's a magazine company so years of back issues have been destroyed, hundreds of out-of-print reference books, photographs, not to mention carpet, files, printers, furniture. The annual audit had been completed on friday and the paper work was neatly sitting in cardboard boxes on the floor. Ouch.

So, we gathered what my housemate needs to get the next edition to print on time, and she has decamped here to my home-office, which has a spare desk that I use for freelancers anyway. I shall quite enjoy having her here I think :) And she already has urgent work in her intray ...