Let them drink Evian

The Great Floods of 2007: in Gloucestershire, the town of Tewkesbury was cut off, and many people made homeless. In Gloucester, the water works at Mythe were out of action for two weeks, meaning that the folk of Gloucester and Cheltenham were without domestic water supplies for a fortnight. Some businesses had to close as they had no loos for visitors. Once, I saw a super-portaloo down a side alley beside Cav House (aka House of Fraser) and it even had a sort of loo hostess inside it, offering towels and fancy soaps. Ten minutes later, I returned with my relatives, and a steel shutter had come down over the alleyway....

In Stroud town, we had water, but the villages had none, and bottled water was distributed in car parks from enormous trucks, with army escorts. I never actually managed to see the army-water-truck, so for me it's an urban myth. People had to prove they needed water by giving their postcode, which was their passport to two bottles per day. Many people left the area and went to stay with relatives.

In our case, my relatives came to stay for five weeks, as they had had some other difficulties where they lived.. They brought a baby, my adorable niece Jezreel, so I am mightily glad that we did have water on tap.

Meanwhile, 2007 was the year I got my first digital camera, and it went everywhere with me, so I was able to record this astonishing sight in Waitrose. Someone did well out of the floods!