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The Perfect Storm
Monday, October 28th, 2013 12:39 pmWhat larks!
Today was the GREAT STORMTM that supposedly brought the UK its worst weather since the ‘Hurricane’ of 1987.
I am prepared to believe that some poor buggers have suffered unduly and that there has been a fair amount of property damage across the country. I’m just rather less sure that this applies to London. There has been some, certainly. Although a cursory inspection of the Gin Palace and a peer out of the window at the garden suggests that all is well at home, we did see a young tree snapped off at its base just around them corner as we walked up to the High Road, and dotted here and there were fallen branches and the odd fence panel blown out. But by and large, it was all rather small beans.
This rather calls into question the need for Greater Anglia to suspend their train services until 9.00 am as they had advertised they would, to check the lines. Last I heard they had pushed their estimate back to midday. I suspect they might not run more than a token train all day, in the end.
So with no overland available, we looked to the Underground. Bearing in mind that despite its name, not all of the underground is actually subterranean, it was perhaps unsurprising that every relevant tube line was a combination of severe delays and/or suspended service.
Nil Desperandum! We walked into Ilford and caught the 25 bus that runs as far as Oxford Circus. The roads were reasonably empty, so progress should have been good. But the bus broke down just before Stratford. We waited for and caught another, but that terminated at Bank. They all terminated at Bank.
No matter, we walked around the corner to catch the 11, which runs all the way out to Fulham Broadway. Except today. Today they are terminating at Aldwych. From Aldwych we walked down the Strand. I parted company with Furtle at Charing Cross as she elected to walk the rest of the way to Westminster. I wandered down to Embankment and found that the Circle and District Lines had now recovered and accordingly jumped on one to Victoria.
I appreciate that working from dire forecasts, travel companies wanted to be safe rather than sorry, but good grief. A combination of contrary events combined to completely destroy my commute today.
Three hours almost to the minute, from front door to desk. I expect Furtle took longer, completing her journey of foot. It was a rubbish storm, but in some ways this all made it the perfect storm.
Today was the GREAT STORMTM that supposedly brought the UK its worst weather since the ‘Hurricane’ of 1987.
I am prepared to believe that some poor buggers have suffered unduly and that there has been a fair amount of property damage across the country. I’m just rather less sure that this applies to London. There has been some, certainly. Although a cursory inspection of the Gin Palace and a peer out of the window at the garden suggests that all is well at home, we did see a young tree snapped off at its base just around them corner as we walked up to the High Road, and dotted here and there were fallen branches and the odd fence panel blown out. But by and large, it was all rather small beans.
This rather calls into question the need for Greater Anglia to suspend their train services until 9.00 am as they had advertised they would, to check the lines. Last I heard they had pushed their estimate back to midday. I suspect they might not run more than a token train all day, in the end.
So with no overland available, we looked to the Underground. Bearing in mind that despite its name, not all of the underground is actually subterranean, it was perhaps unsurprising that every relevant tube line was a combination of severe delays and/or suspended service.
Nil Desperandum! We walked into Ilford and caught the 25 bus that runs as far as Oxford Circus. The roads were reasonably empty, so progress should have been good. But the bus broke down just before Stratford. We waited for and caught another, but that terminated at Bank. They all terminated at Bank.
No matter, we walked around the corner to catch the 11, which runs all the way out to Fulham Broadway. Except today. Today they are terminating at Aldwych. From Aldwych we walked down the Strand. I parted company with Furtle at Charing Cross as she elected to walk the rest of the way to Westminster. I wandered down to Embankment and found that the Circle and District Lines had now recovered and accordingly jumped on one to Victoria.
I appreciate that working from dire forecasts, travel companies wanted to be safe rather than sorry, but good grief. A combination of contrary events combined to completely destroy my commute today.
Three hours almost to the minute, from front door to desk. I expect Furtle took longer, completing her journey of foot. It was a rubbish storm, but in some ways this all made it the perfect storm.