my 'commute' through the floods

There are people out there who are having a truly awful time in the floods in Europe and the big freeze in the U.S. I am not one of them. I am well-fed, warm and (mostly) dry. 
However, for amusement purposes only, here is an account of my recent journeys which have been affected by the floods. 
Yesterday my bus took 1hr15mins to get out of Oxford, this normally takes about 10mins if there's no traffic, so pretty grim. At one point we just sat in solid traffic without moving for 20 mins. So I knew I might have a problem getting to work today. Happily I wasn't due to teach til 1pm so I figured at least I had plenty of margin for error. Just as well. I headed out at about 10:50am. The bus dropped us off in the outskirts of Oxford as the Botley Road was closed because it looked like this:

Although I was wearing my wellies, I managed to walk around the outside of this by climbing through a bush! No-one else who'd got off the bus with me was wellie-d up and I felt a bit guilty. 

Then I walked past this:

And then I walked past another part where the water was right across the road, it was being pumped from the lefthand side of the road into the centre, which seemed rather Sisyphean to me. It was A LOT of water. 
Then there was more water across the road a bit further along, it was possible to get round it by going a couple of metres down a side street but it wasn't very deep and I was wearing my wellies so I thought I'd go through it. I put my left foot in the water and immediately felt cold and wet! A leaky welly! I laughed out loud at the irony, earning me an odd look from a man nearby. 
Then I looked at the welly:

that's one helluva leaky welly!

Ho hum, off I squelched. Past this:

that's the playing field behind the community centre

And on the other side of the road, this:

a church with a moat!

And finally, these allotments, which break my heart, so sad for their owners:

I made it to work at 12:40 - phew!

Let me stress again that I am fully aware that my vaguely amusing split welly story is nothing compared to the real trials some people are going through at the moment, I'm not after sympathy here, just sharing.

Any excuse to go shopping, so after work I pootled off to Primarni and acquired myself a more attractive pair of fully functioning wellies, and a coat with a hood and pleather sleeves that was only £16!

This evening I boarded the bus at the bus station, it was leaving from the right place but going out of Oxford by a different route, at 4:15pm. At 5:57pm, we were out of Oxford and speeding along the A34, I got home at 6:30. For reference, this journey normally takes 30mins without traffic and up to an hour during rush hour.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to go to Torquay for an interview - eek!

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13 words not found in the English language

http://recluse.me/2007/11/13-words-not-found-in-the-english-language/

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