Week 64 in London - floods and Brexit

Week 64: 20 – 26 June 2016

Having farewelled Lauren and Mark the day before, we headed off to work on Monday for a fairly regular week ahead.

It was a busy first day of the week for Roslyn, with two events on Monday as part of London Technology Week. The first was the launch event in trendy Shoreditch and the day concluded with the Ambassador's Reception at the Royal Armouries and the White Tower at Tower of London. On Tuesday morning it was straight back into it, with an early morning breakfast event on the top floor of The Gherkin.

On Tuesday evening, London copped thunderstorms that were described as its “loudest ever”. Lightning, thunder and pouring rain that woke us during the night - without a doubt we’d never heard anything like it during our time in the UK. The type of storm you’d expect in Australia!

We had no idea how bad it had been until the next day when our journey to work was interrupted. The heavy rain near our house had resulted in flooding at Clapham Junction station, both inside and out on the tracks. A large number of services were either delayed or cancelled, resulting in a massive backlog of people.

At Latchmere Road, near where we live, the road beneath a railway bridge was flooded. Brendan regularly walks home from work along this road, and so was surprised on Wednesday evening to see just how high the water was. As we found out later, a BMW had been submerged there earlier in the day, and described by one user on Twitter as “when the effluent meets the affluent”. At the time Brendan walked past, a taxi had become stuck in a road manhole possibly while trying to turn around to miss the floodwaters.

A little further up the road, a particular poster depicting Boris Johnson and Donald Trump getting intimate had been drawing attention in the last week or so. In the lead up to the pending Brexit referendum, pro-EU artists had revealed a large mural in Bristol depicting these “leave” supporting politicians and the controversial and memorable image was scaled down and put up elsewhere as posters.

The referendum was held on the Thursday, with the “leave” result seeming to surprise many, including those who voted to leave, who never thought it had a chance of going through. The subsequent resignation of Leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister, David Cameron (who had urged Brit’s to vote “remain”), was not unexpected. The bizarre twist came about when “leave” campaigner Boris Johnson, who many expected to be Cameron’s successor, ruled himself out of the position.

The rain and recent warm weather had spurred growth on our fuchsias; giving our otherwise drab and barren patio some much needed aesthetic appeal.

We remained in London for the weekend, and poor weather meant that unfortunately we still didn’t get up to very much. On Saturday we went over to the cinemas at the Southside Shopping Centre in Wandsworth, and saw Me Before You.

During our time in Iceland back in January, we discovered the wondrous dairy snack of skyr. The closest comparison would be Greek yogurt, and yet still skyr is so much better. The same brand as we had enjoyed in Iceland had newly become available at selected Waitrose supermarkets, and so on Sunday we went across to the Balham store to stock up for the week ahead.

Highlights for the week:

- Event at Tower of London for Roslyn

- Thunderstorms and downpours on Tuesday night

- Severe rail disruptions due to flooding

- Flooded roads

- Brexit referendum

- David Cameron resigned as Prime Minister

- Flowering fuchsias

- Went to the cinema to see Me Before You
- Stocked up on skyr