A letter to Janie Hall from her friend Sharon Gates.

February 10th 2020

Here’s a present, Janie, to wish you a happy 48th birthday — it’s a clockwork DVD player. Be electricity independent!! There’s a second one for Emily to take on her travels, she’s off soon, isn’t she? How are you all doing in Reading? How are you coping with the floods? Here in what was so quaintly named the ‘Thames Gateway’ we have some redeveloped areas that are floating islands, able to rise and fall with the waters, but most people are still on ‘dry’ land which as you know is often inundated. I hadn’t paid much attention to it until recently, but think about water supplies and drains – traditional water pipes and sewers do not fit the bill when homes vary in height by up to two metres. The transport systems have to be different, too. There’s a new network of amphibious buses able to travel on land or water, but that’s not too much help when your local bus stop is deeply flooded. The water makes lots of parents afraid, so I think the new law making swimming compulsory for all babies is basically a good idea, although the water is often so dirty that no one in their right mind would want to swim in it.

Rubbish is another problem if you live on one of the islands. People with roof gardens can compost their kitchen waste up there, and I’ve got a friend in a flat on one of the islands who only has a balcony, but she has a compost bin on it and uses the compost in the plant pots she has all around the place. Every two weeks rubbish that can’t be composted is taken off to the incinerator, if the roads to the islands are under water they use amphibious trucks, mostly they work OK but a couple of weeks ago one got stuck in mud below the surface and it was five days before it could be moved, the smell was awful. They got a gang of prisoners to do the job, you know, the not-too-dangerous ones (we hope) who wear the fluorescent red boiler suits. Prisoners are also breaking up concrete and other hard surfaces in people’s gardens, so that more rain can sink in to the ground. I’m amazed that people were allowed to cover their gardens with concrete in the first place, I remember that my parents did it, they said they were too busy to garden and they needed to get the cars off the street. I don’t mind the prisoners doing jobs like concrete-busting, they are usually well supervised, but the conscripts are another matter, given half a chance they’ll bunk off.

Have a great birthday, and I hope we can have a day out in the summer. Perhaps we could each get on a river bus and meet somewhere central like Chertstone? Love from Sharon

Background information

Meet the Halls, my mythical family:  Rob Hall, born on January 2nd 1970; his wife Janie (February 25th 1972); their children Emily (March 5th 2002) and Joshua (May 4th 1999). Rob’s parents are Tim (November 12th 1937) and Beryl (April 20th 1940). Janie’s parents are Shirley (April 22nd 1946) and Bill Priest (October 17th 1944).