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The dogs say goodnight 17 February 2014 19:41 Smalltown has (so far) remained unscathed from the floods, but the Royal Navy were in town last week laying sandbags along the river bank. A nearby village has been flooded (but it does most years, owing to the fact that the river runs parallel to the main street). I saw someone from that village last week who told me that they had had five red alert "get out or the house or you will drown" warnings up to then, much to the consternation of elderly residents. She also said she was annoyed with villagers who complained that the pumps were keeping them awake at night, or that sewage was being dumped in the river. Well, it's either that or the water and sewage floods your house. There was also some woman from Surry on the news complaining "we've had floods for 24 hours and haven't seen the army". Well, hang on a bit; gain a sense of perspective. People in Somerset have been flooded since Christmas. Prize for the best quote that summaries British stoicism must go to the bloke who was interviewed about his beach hut: "I'd put a strong new lock on, and covered it with marine grease to protect it. I'm sure it's still there, if I ever see the door again - and the wall it was attached to" (owtte) A house I pass on the way to work had a pump running a couple of days last week. Water was being pumped back into the stream that passes the property. They hadn't put too much though into it though, as the pump was emptying upstream of the property. They were pumping water back into the stream that was causing the flooding. Incidentally, that cottage was on "Escape to the Country" last week. This is one of those property-finding shows where the presenters spend a lot of time and trouble showing suitable properties to prospective purchase who then decide to buy something completely different. Anyway, one of this cottage's selling points was the cellar "that you could convert into an office". Or swimming pool! I stopped to do some shopping on the way home on Friday. OK, let's milk this for all the kudos I can get. I stopped to buy some V-day flowers for CGF. And from a proper florist, not a supermarket or petrol station. Anyway, the assistant made a mistake on the card reader and entered the value as pence rather than pounds. She realised afterwards and I paid the difference. Shows how much attention I paid to the display as I hadn't noticed. I did say that had I noticed later I would have returned to pay the rest, and would like to think that this was true. Certainly as a small independent retailer, I would be more likely to do so than if it had been a large chain. We went to a band concert on Saturday. An almost last-minute decision as we only decided to go last weekend. Glad we did as it was very, very good. The Hampshire Police band (no, I didn't know they had one either), augmented by the Eastleigh Scout and Guide band. Both bands play to a very high standard, and with around 80 musicians on stage produced a fantastic sound. But who thought it would be a good idea to name the march of the Police band the Hampshire HOG? This concert was week two of our Cultural February. Last weekend was the Ewok concert; next weekend we are going to see Oliver. The following weekend is a Pink Floyd tribute, which technically isn't February but technically is Culture. The high winds on Friday night ripped CGF's garden gate from its hinges and split the gate post as well. So Sunday's job was to re-hang it. The gate-hanging went well; at least, I haven't yet had a phone call telling me that it has fallen down. Did have one problem.
Apparently it's all down to physics. The forces holding a gate post to a wall are greater than the forces required to break a hammer shaft. Physics and the fact that I can't find my wrecking bar.
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