Post by PeterPost by Nicholas D. RichardsPost by PeterPost by Chris ElvidgeHas anyone else noticed that storms have got worse since we started
anthropomorphising them - giving them names?
Nah, storms of today don't know they're born. We had *real* storms in my
day.
We had a real storm in 1987 (they did not give them names then) and
another one a couple of years later. I slept through the first one and
woke up at my normal time wondering why it was cold and the radio did
not come on. I got to work more quickly than usual.
I could't get to work. After cycling round several downed trees I got to
the station. I got a feeling that it might be a long wait for a train when
I noticed that the station buildings had been blown onto the track.
Absolutely. There were no trains running on Southern Region (as it was
called then). I thought the buses would be totally crowded out, so if I
walked down to Herne Hill I could catch the 40 into town from its
terminus stop. I was just by a bus stop when the 68 drew up beside me.
The driver thought I might want to catch a bus. I hopped into an empty
bus, just me and the driver. By 8 am all the trees blocking the route
had already been cleared away. All the way to the Elephant the bus did
not stop at a single stop, everyone seemed to have decided that it was
too 'difficult' to get to work. I was surprised to find that I had
reached work in 25 minutes, rather than the usual 45-60 minutes.
A part from myself the only other IT development staff there were
contractors; not surprising as they were only paid for their time. It
was a similar story on the Clearing Floor. Fortunately the BofE declared
that Friday a 'non-clearing day'.
'Black Monday' followed; but for the storm it would have been a 'Black
Friday'.
I had a sense of irony when I noticed a house on Herne Hill where a
chestnut tree had fallen and taken out the front of the house and landed
on and squashed the Rollo parked on the drive outside the house. Not
really amusing for the owners.
--
***@tcher -
"Où sont les neiges d'antan?"