I decided a while back to take the last week of August off to try and do  some work at home.  “Shouldn’t be too busy at the Centre …”, I said to myself, “… if I get the Autumn Newsletter ready to print, and the Committee papers ready to send … August is always a quiet month.”

Ha!

Now, I know it’s always tempting providence to do something like that …  think you’ve got it all sorted … but really, the universe didn’t have to over-react to QUITE the degree that it did.

First the photocopier ground to a halt.  I mean totally.  Full malfunction necessitating multiple engineer visits.  Then there was this freaky thunderstorm that zapped the Centre and fried the telephones. Then, as if expiring photocopiers and fritzed telephones weren’t enough to be going on with, the heavens did the whole End of the World thing and dumped more water on us than you can ever begin to imagine …  in the wee small hours when no-one was looking, except for the people who were hip-deep in flood water. Ravenglass was awash. Seascale was swamped. Braystones was cut off.  Beckermet was inundated.  Bits of Egremont kept falling off … Even the national news noticed – and when they notice something that’s going on beyond Croydon, you know it’s bad.

I’m sorry. It’s all my fault. I get the message and I won’t take another week off.  Ever.