OK, it's wet

I wandered out to the Passat at about 6:20am. I knew I wouldn't have to crawl in through the trunk only because I hadn't bothered locking it. I hadn't bothered to lock it because the car is simply not worth locking and because I had gone to bed convinced of the very real possibility that it might float away anyway.

If anyone hasn't been watching the news, there has been a lot of rain here. So much, in fact, that rivers have shown considerable disregard to the banks that normally confine their movement.

On this morning, the car was there and the car park was wet from rain but there was no standing water. I hoppped in and started off. My drive takes me over the Chilterns, which a tourist sign notes is an "area of outstanding natural beauty." And it is beautiful. Probably beautiful enough that it doesn't need a sign to tell you it is beautiful. Those who have driven through BC will appreciate similar patronising signs that tell you that BC is beautiful as you drive past stunning glaciers, wonderful lakes and panoramic valley views.

The Chilterns are high ground in the south east corner of Oxfordshire and not subject to flooding. I bypass the chaos of the flooded towns of Abingdon and Wallingford and arrive at work. As colleagues disappear home to move furniture to the top floors of their houses, I realise that Ange and I both work on high ground. In both instances, we're at the top of a hill in a lovely old building. In both instances, there is no chance of water lapping at the doors of our place of work.

But our personal circumstances aside, things are really, really bad here. People are in a really bad way. Though I don't mean to minimise the flooding catastrophy in Manitoba (Red River) some years back, the numbers of people affected in Britain dwarf those affected in Manitoba on a shocking scale. Nearly half a million people don't have running water right now... and aren't likely to for another 2 weeks. Thousands of homes are submerged in Oxfordshire, Gloucester, Berkshire and Bedfordshire. Still, the generaly public deals with this with a stoicism that is admirable. Mind you, it might just be a stoicism of people who seem to have to deal with an epic crisis of one sort or another seemingly every year.

What is also incredible is how unaffected we have been while being sat right in the middle of it. If anything, the fact that thousands of people in our area have their cars sat under a few feet of water means that the past few days, the traffic has been incredibly light. My drive into work doesn't involve crossing any rivers and covers high ground, so things are actually moving more efficiently for me. Ange's 1 minute walk to work remains unaffected too. Anna's nursery is at the absolute high point in our town and she is unaffected. We had trouble getting to soft play for Anna last friday, but that is hardly an imposition. Today, however, Reading is meant to get hit by the high water surge. I guess we'll soon discover how close to the flood plain our house sits!

For more on just how flooded things are, check out the BBC