On a Sunday afternoon, Ken and I usually go out with one of Ken’s friends, not today though fbecause for some reason Philip wasn’t at home. We decided to continue with our plans and set off to Ashton Park so Ken could look at the giant sized vehicles.
There was also a fun fair on the park. We realised after some discussion that neither of us liked rides but we enjoyed looking at the faces of those who supposedly enjoy being thrown upside down and being spun round so fast that they no longer knew where their stomach were. Actually Ken started looking at how the rides were put together and how they are then packed up onto the back of a lorry. One of the rides was dodgem cars. Ken and I decided that we would probably be able to cope with this so joined the queue. Just as we were going round on the dodgem cars, the heavens opened – it absolutely threw it down! This was ok for us as we were nicely under cover – that was until it was time to get off!
We got off the dodgems and madly dashed to the one undercover bit but as you will imagine everyone else on the fairground had the same idea. We stood there for a while and decided to eat a yummy cheeseburger while sheltering from the rain. There were all sorts of people undercover but the ones that got to me were two little children (probably under the age of 5) and they were visibly shivering. Mum was trying her best to dry them off with her wet sari.
When the rain finally did slow down Ken and I decided it was the moment to run to the car which was some distance away. If you know me you will realise that running is not my thing and so after a short distance I started to walk again and left Ken going on ahead. I passed another mum who needed a medal. She was carrying another young child and pushing his bike along the path, all the while though she was singing songs about the rain and talking to the child saying “we don’t mind getting wet do we, it’s only water, it won’t do us any harm” and of course they were both getting soaked to the skin.
When we finally got in the car we dried ourselves off as best we could and then set off home. We couldn’t believe what we saw – there were streams of water flowing at a rate of knots down the road and it was all collecting and flooding the road before our very eyes. As we went further down the road it was just getting worse – the water was rushing down the roads and had lifted the manhole covers so the water was gushing up from underground. Amazing to watch but not great to have to drive through.
As you can tell we have survived to tell the tale but we were concerned about Pastor Dan and his family especially knowing that they have a brook running along the house and garden. We have rung them and all is well – they too were fascinated at watching the cars drive through the flood water just outside the house. I guess they really are experiencing the typical British weather of glorious sunshine one minute and torrents of rain the next!
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