Absolutely bucketed it down whilst at work (we have these wonderful, enormous windows at one end of the room, full width, half height, dont
steam up - great view
) and we were joking that somewhere was going to get flooded.... that joke stopped and mood became less festive whenafter some hours, the rain showed that it still had no intention of letting up - but for five lucky minutes when we stepped out to go down to the station.
where i was suddenly glad i hadn't driven in:
it was already quite obvious that the queensway tunnels were probably flooded again (reducing bham city centre throughput by about 80%), and
probably part of the main road through the site as well. nothing moved until i was halfway through getting the pics, and stopped again after.
getting back to the station however, i wished i hadnt driven at all.
greeted by these scenes (use some imagination with 'em).
due to the geography, the rail line isnt quite high enough for a bridge to be more than 4ft high, so the road has to dip sharply when passing
underneath. this is also one of the best parking spots so it has many drains.
they blocked. when i got there, it was just up to the 'trays sills, and there was talk that it had been higher until the clever man with the big pole had
come along and started scrabbling at the drain covers to shift the leaves that were in the way.
worse still was the girl in the fiesta a couple places back, who usually i park behind not the other way round. i merely got wet ankles; her car was
lost up to the windows, possibly at some earlier point it was completely submerged. incredibly, with a few local kids on standby in case something
bad happened, she managed to crawl in through the boot, get it started (!!!!) and drive off... very slowly.
not being at all helped by the b*stards in 4x4s who, instead of responsibly crawling through the 2-foot-plus ford decided to blitzkrieg it, soaking
everyone nearby and making getting in your own car a bit of a game of chicken. if they'd been going a little slower after exiting there was at least
one i was prepared to chase down, drag out of their seat and slap round the cheeks. no need.
(better still would have been taking a 3-minute detour on another nearby road)
its fair proven the water fastness of a vauxhall and a ford - i wonder how a typical vw would do? we all know of the sunroof, door, tailgate sealing issues
PS would you take your kid to see such a film, or just put the money on buying the best damn lullaby musicbox you could find? same effect, just quicker, and without the cost of popcorn
(insert usual apologies about rubbish quality of phone cams)
