A storm complete with lashing rain, thunder and totally theatrical lightning – and today serene and sunny, a more than reasonable 23ºC. In Catalonia there is rarely that held-over spitefulness of continuing bad weather that Britain likes just to rub it in!
Our house is not impervious to storms and Toni is usually quick to lower the outside blinds to shield us from water ingress. But yesterday, ingress it did, and we are still trying to work out exactly how and where. That does not sound as stupid as it writes as there was a puddle in front of the television which was more like a self-contained lake than something fed by tributary streams. There is also a disconcertingly elegant (if unnecessary) extended streak of a dried water track on one of the inside walls, where our wall adjoins the next house. That is a mystery deserving of more investigation.
The basic problem of the house is that it is, I suspect, shoddily made and our landlords have done virtually nothing to upkeep the place over the years. The only time they have ventured to do something is when actual human life is threatened, as for example in eventually dealing with the large broken branch of one of our neighbour’s trees overshadowing our garden and swinging out over the pavement, or some of the stone cladding on the house breaking away and falling. God alone know when the electrics of the house have last been tested and the pipes looked at. Certainly, the front of the house has not been painted for decades and looks set to be dingy for decades more.
We do not have double glazing, and the window frames are ageing wood, and I suspect that the glass in the window is more suitable for framing domestic art than keeping out the elements.
Why, you may well ask, do we not move? And the answer is the old three word response: location, location, location. And so, we make do, and mop.
I did not trust the pool to be open this morning and so I had an extra hour or so in bed. Our mobile phones are full of pictures of the the main road in the centre of Castelldefels looking more like a shallow canal with cars ploughing through as if they are hoping to give a good watery display for any passing Ticktocker with an active camera, ready to post.
There are certain key spots in Castelldefels that flood even with a moderate amount of rain, so they become impassable with a decent storm. As much of Castelldefels is built at or even below sea level, and a substantial part of it is built on a reclaimed marsh, it is hardly surprising that water tends to stay in place rather than drain away – and one of the places that it remains, is opposite the entrance to the Pool, and indeed in the car part of the Pool itself.
One of the civic messages that I read this morning states that there are likely to be ‘problems’ with flooding during part of today. The flood warning extended from last night up until 6 am this morning, so there will have been some adventurous driving needed to get around – at last justifying the high-rise 4 by 4s that so many of the affluent affect in this area. Although, thinking about it for more than a moment, the state of many of our roads also calls for rugged suspension, where roots of adjacent pine trees cause roads to be switchbacks!
And visitors are arriving this Sunday! With one threatening retribution on whoever is around at the time unless there is a goodly amount of autumnal sun! We will have to see what we can do.
