You may have heard that there has been some small amount of flooding where I live today. It may (or may not) please you to know that I still aten't dead. Both the river and the canal burst their banks right by my workplace, which is called The Barge and Barrel for a reason, and the offices the other side of the canal got evacuated, but luckily the water only got as far as the junk cellar, and not into the beer cellars, which are slightly higher.

The three barges that moor the other side of the canal from work got lifted up onto the towpath by the rising water, and then one of them tried to float into the carpark of the offices. I took some pictures of it on my phone, listing worryingly because it was still tied up, which I will upload later.

I have therefore spent much of the day at work alternately watching my boss carry bags of used malt down to the cellar in a desperate attempt to stem the flood and on the phone to the environment agency. You see on this link, where it says the EA issued a flood warning for the river Calder between Elland Bridge and Lowfields at 2.14pm? This would be because I rang them up at half past one to tell them that both the river and the canal had burst their banks at Elland Bridge...

It's been interesting. Getting home was also interesting, because the road I usually get home by was closed due to being under a couple of feet of water... Luckily, I got an absolute angel of a bus driver who went round several roads that emphatically weren't on his route in order to get us into the bus station.

Anyway, I am home, safe, and have had snuggles from Mat and Shrubby and the doggies, and am feeling much less panicky than I was at about two o'clock when the water was still rising and it was looking like I would be stuck at the pub for the foreseeable future.

And, like the title says, I am VERY glad I chose to live half way up a hill...

... because I am off to That London to visit matgb and see lots of friends.

We were supposed to be going to Germany, but budgetary and other considerations have meant that that has fallen through... Hey ho. Hopefully we'll manage a honeymoon abroad. Although there's always Whitby. If it was good enough for my mum and dad... ;)

Anyway, if any hugely important news stories break while I'm gone, I'll probably have something to say when I get back. In the meantime I'd like everyone to send positive vibes to norfolkian, who is not only poorly, but in a flood risk area. It never rains but it pours, eh?