During the day on the 23rd December, all was calm all was bright. Then as night fell so did the rain, then the wind picked up. We sat with our glasses of festive wine in the conservatory listening to the hammering rain on the roof thinking gosh it's bad, gosh we are lucky ... and I toddled upstairs around 10.30pm and had my toothbrush in my hand when FauxSurreyHubby's voice pierced my ears ... get down here quick!
So I legged it downstairs to find FSHubby up to his ankles in flood water in the utility - water was gushing under the door & straight through into one of the garages. The drain that should've taken all the water away was over burdened AND blocked with leaves. And then an FSTeen yelled that the conservatory roof had given in - there were 7 weak spots and each was channelling water into the house not out onto the garden. Oh f**k!!
The beginning of Christmas was therefore spent in wellies & rubber gloves, baling out, pumping out, making cups of tea, strategically placing containers to catch the roof drips, unblocking drains and simply being exhausted. We got to bed around 3AM but I woke up again at 7AM as the KC needed to go out but as she leapt though her cat-flap she landed in 4 inches of standing water on the patio! Not happy ... mewing loudly she gingerly crept up the garden shaking each paw with each step & I tip toed behind her with my coffee carefully making my way up the garden too to see what was what - and realised ALL our garden fences had blown down too. BUT the house behind us had a massive tree wedged into a hole where their roof used to be. We really got off lightly. And so Christmas eve itself was a blur of sweeping & pumping water off the patio, enlisting the help of our WONDERFUL neighbour & her cousin to hasten a decent repair of the fence (thank god for nail guns!) and attempt to think about what still needed to be done for the big day itself.
Then around 4pm Christmas eve, just as we were starting to feel cheered about finally being dry & OK we had a call from wonderful neighbour telling us her hubby had been trapped by a flood in his office 1 mile away and that he had to be rescued by boat - could we give her a lift (we have the big weather proof 4x4) to go through the tree strewn & flooded roads to pick him up from the rescue centre. His boat rescue was even on the 6 O'clock BBC news! Oy Oy. All too exciting.
Brain was frazzled however as I do not do well on 4 hours sleep & so many Teen Christmas gift items were left unwrapped and on the day the Christmas spirit was rather stretched! Still a bunch of visitors & a 3 hour game of Charades plus Dr Who on Christmas night cheered us all up. Another storm hit last night & we remained dry so fingers crossed the worst is over
Here's to 2014!!!
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