It’s just past the longest day of the year, it’s midsummer and what’s the weather doing, raining that’s what, especially in East Yorkshire. But its not ordinary rain this is a deluge as anyone living in the UK will have seen on the news. There are floods all over with roads looking like rivers and houses full of water and people being evacuated and on top of that it’s cold enough for any self respecting Bahamian to be wearing a hat, scarf, gloves and anorak.


Of course the Bahamas and now Barcelona are the last two places our family have lived and where we have spent many months since our retirement. So why are we here and not in Barcelona? It does seem strange that Alex and the grandkids have come over here for a few weeks into what seems a nightmare when back home the weather is gorgeous and the beach is two minutes away from their house and the swimming pool is in the garden. But it is good to have them here. I am sure this is character building for the kids except at the moment they both have heavy colds as a result of constantly getting wet and being cold.


But that’s not really the point of this article. The point is that yesterday’s rain caused the main sewers in Tickton to fill up and overflow with the result that a torrent of sewage water poured into my garden flooding Christine’s ‘outside room’ that had been dressed especially for Alex coming home. Plants, flowers and ornaments disappeared as the water rose higher, “do something” says Christine “it's getting near to coming in the house”. Do something! The rain is torrential and the water is above ankle level and at the moment I am just settling down with a sandwich and coffee to watch Wimbledon on the TV, I am retired you know! But I have to do something!


I look around at all the new floor tiles, the oak woodwork in the garden room, the new kitchen and the Armoire and Welsh Dresser in the breakfast room and suddenly the thought of trekking around the shops with Christine to replace everything seems more than I can cope with. It’s easier to do something.


So in the pouring rain I am down the builders merchant buying bags of sand which I transfer into sacks back at the house and place at the back door. The water is repelled and we spend the rest of the afternoon anxiously watching the level to see if it comes over the sand bags. Of course it doesn’t, I don’t think it would even have come in without the sandbags but we leave them there until this morning just to be safe. This morning I am out cleaning sewage of the drive, paths and garden. Nice job! Only takes three hours and just as I finish Yorkshire Water ring to say they can come to clean up the garden, I tell them I have already done it and they seem quite pleased.


But still we have not really reached the point of this article. It’s all about how work expands to fill available time. Parkinson’s Law I think.


This is not the first time this flooding has happened, it is a regular event in the rainy season. The last time I was still at work, working very hard as usual having dinner with Richard in a Turkish restaurant somewhere in Putney I think when the mobile rings and it’s Christine telling me we are having a flood. Now I am hundreds of miles away and my kebabs are getting cold and my is beer getting warm and she is telling me about how high the water is. What am I supposed to do? I ring Yorkshire Water who tell me they are overstretched and cannot do anything until the morning so I ring Christine to let her know and tell her to put towels against the back door and go to bed. As we are all on one level at home I also suggest that she puts a pair of Wellington Boots next to the bed just in case we do have a problem during the night. She didn’t seem to appreciate the comment.


The next morning I am wondering about ringing home but if it was bad news it would probably spoil my breakfast. So first it’s off to the restaurant for a poached egg on toast with a little bacon and maybe a sausage on the side followed by toast and marmalade and a cup of tea, no wallpaper paste in those days and then I ring home. Of course the water hadn’t come in, it had now all gone away and Yorkshire Water had rung to say they would be there later that day to clean up, which they did. Problem solved.



So you see the issue, because I had time I got some sandbags, got very wet putting then against the back door, worried all day about water levels and then cleaned up the resulting mess. Parkinson’s Law you see, when I didn’t have the time because I was at work Christine worried about the levels and Yorkshire Water cleaned everything up and I had an excellent Turkish meal and a few beers. There is a lot to be said for staying at work.