Yucky weather

I wrote this post on Sunday 15th February and had to save it as a draft before I could finish it. I am only just getting round to finishing it and posting it - sorry for the delay! So please bear in mind this post doesn't relate to this week.

What a week.

The rain started on Tuesday and we had a ridiculous amount of rain in a 2 hour window which meant the city's drainage system couldn't cope and there was a lot of flooding.

Had I stayed at work all day and not ventured out until after 5pm (as is the norm) it probably wouldn't have affected me. Once the rain slowed the drains started to work and by the time Graeme got home he said the roads were fine.

But I had a meeting in town at lunchtime which I couldn't miss. So I ventured out. Got to the meeting and was lucky enough to get the park right outside the door. Still managed to get soaked running in though. Meeting went well.

Then I decided to do the banking and some stationery shopping before heading back to the office. When the parking meter took my money and didn't give me a ticket that's when I should have realised I would be better off hibernating. Luckily I spotted a traffic warden across the street so marched over to them (I should point out here that I was wearing flimsy sandals and a skirt because the day had started off nice!). The traffic warden wrote down my number plate and let me off for 10 minutes when I explained what had happened and that I didn't have anymore money. Then as I stepped back to go in the bank my foot landed in a puddle about 2 inches deep....yuck!

Got to the bank and had problems there but all fixable. Then I went stationery shopping and everything got soaked as I tried to load it into the car. But I was done in town and could head back to the office.

That's when it got worse! I couldn't turn down some roads because they were completely flooded (see shot below) so I kept turning hoping for a road that was less flooded.

The worst part came when I pulled up behind a minivan and a car pulled up behind me and we were all trying to turn left. There was a council worker in the road measuring the flooding and he told the van to go the over way.

So the van started reversing....

I put the car into reverse and looked behind to see the car behind me in the exact same spot. I looked front and the van kept reversing (at this point I was swearing). I lent on the horn but not quick enough to stop the van before it hit me.

And the driver behind still hadn't moved! Then he had the cheek to reverse pull out and give me a dirty look as he went past!

So the van pulled forward and up a drive to do a u-turn and I turned also. I had to get out of the car to check the damage in inches of water (I was absolutely soaked at this point). Luckily there was hardly any damage - just some scratches so I waved the minivan driver on when he stopped to check.

I was okay but in panic mode at that point. I rung Graeme and said I was going home and not driving again so he could either get a taxi home or I would go to his work then and there so he could drop me and have the car. He chose the taxi option.

The water went down pretty quickly once the downpour let up which was good. It's pretty much been raining on and off since then which is a wee bit depressing though!