I feel guilty – again! Yesterday I was rather flippant about ‘Desmond’ but I was focused on the name and not on the devastating storm itself. To see your home/business/property consumed by incessant rain, overflowing rivers and drains, streams of mud and filth and know that recent history is repeating itself, is heartbreaking. ‘Lessons will be learned’ – if I have heard this saying once, in the past twenty years, I’ve heard it a hundred times. After every devastating event or trauma, it seems to me that political sticking plasters are stretched over wounds that require deeper, more intensive surgery. We seem to be able to plan and build the most complex of motorway systems yet our lesser roads remain undulating patchworks of rubble and tarmac. Bring back the Romans! They knew how to build roads, dig ditches, sink drains. Speaking of drains, I shudder to think what lies beneath our terra (un)firma and ‘passes’ as a twenty first century drainage system. 

I was forced to quit my rented cottage at this time last year because of drainage problems – well who in their right mind could accept an upsurge of effluent into their shower room every three months and accept that it was ‘just another blockage’. A highly reputable firm identified the specific problem (using cctv equipment) in June ’14. Promises were made and those promises, like the drains underground, were broken. The landlord refused to address the root cause  and I had no alternative but to put my belongings into storage and leave the property. Now you see how I’ve made this ‘Desmond’  all about me – sorry – but I know something of the current (no pun intended!) situation. Now I’m feeling even more guilty – especially for the pun! One year on and I am still dealing with  the whole sorry matter. I find it to be extremely… em…’draining’ as do the family, who would be quite happy for me to ‘pipe down’ and let sleeping landlords lie…. that ain’t gonna happen. Watch this space. My heart goes out to those people affected by this weather – what I went through is nothing. I would certainly not want to be in your shoes ……

The class were given a dictionary exercise.

‘Find the following words, read the explanations carefully then use each word in a sentence to show that you understand its meaning.’

One of the words was ‘admission‘.

Michael wrote, ‘ Last week I could not come to school because my shoes were admission.

( Dictionary meaning: admit – to let in; admission – letting in)