Twenty years and two days ago*, I awoke to find that lots of trees had blocked my way to work. Not only that, but where I worked at the time was closed because of lots of trees blocking roads, and also - because trees are in the main big things - they'd stopped electricity in many places by falling on power cables.
This was due to the 'Great Storm' of 1987, which I hope some of my readers will remember.
For those that don't, England was first alerted to the impending hurricane by a woman calling into the BBC weather forecast place, who told Michael Fish that a hurricane was on it's way, only to be reassured that it definitely wasn't.
I didn't see the weather report myself as I was out at a party that night, but I still forecast the storm myself. The chap I'd been to the party at was walking me home through Hanwell, and the weather was incredibly strange. Although it was a during cold spell in October, the wind suddenly went from cold and slow, to very warm and 'blowy'; a bit like walking through the effects of a very large hairdryer, and it was so warm it was more like summer than autumn. It was as I said, strange. I've never felt a wind like it since, and it was literally holding objects such as litter, leaves, and my hair up in it's grasp, and gently swirling them about, but not blowing them away.** I told my friend that a big storm was coming, but just like Michael Fish, he poo-poo'ed me and told me not to be so daft.
I got home at just past mid-night, and thanks to a few large G&Ts earlier that night, fell fast aspleep, and (as regular readers may remember) when I spleep, I SPLEEP!
All I remember about the hurricane itself, was half waking up at about 5am, and wondering why the tree by my fence was next to the window, and what the F was all the noise about.
Now, back in 1987 I was working at the BBC Club in Lime Grove which at the time was where the main news stories were transmitted from.
I got up, and after getting some coffee woke up and switched the telly on only to find that my place of work was closed due to the storm, and all transmissions were being sent from an emergency studio at White City.
'Hurrah!' I thought through my post G&T fug, and curled up under the duvet again to find out what was going on.
As I did like my job, I called work to see if there was any point in my trying to get there, and they replied 'Yes please, if you can get here, we'd love to see you as we need all hands on deck!', so I left my cosy pit, got dressed, and attempted to get to work.
I tried, I really did, but the first three roads I tried to walk along to get to the bus stop were blocked by fallen trees/blown over caravans/live power cables, and when I eventually got to the bus stop I found that the chances of getting onto a bus were about as much as winning the lottery without buying a ticket first.
So, as if I'd managed to get to work I'd only have had four more hours left to do, I trundled back home again.
My dogs were very happy to see me again, and so I grabbed their leads and together we went to the park to see what had happened there.
I did take some photos, but sadly over the last twenty years, they've been eaten by gremlins, else I'd have had piccies of grand old trees split in half or fallen over, and the park almost covered in leaves and branches.
We even had to climb over a tree to get into the park, which the dogs enjoyed much more than I did, and after sniffing about for half an hour or so, my dog Sheba found 'The Best Stick In The World Ever'.
Now, Sheba was a borderline collie, so not the biggest of canines.
Said stick, was a branch about six foot long, but thin enough for her to carry, so she proudly grabbed her find and the three of us trotted back to home.
All was fine until Sheba tried to get her stick through two parked cars. The gap was about four foot wide, the stick - which of course was being carried sideways - was as I said six foot long.
You do the maths.
After ten minutes I finally persuaded her to let me carry the stick until we reached home again, which was just across the road, and on arrival, she joyously took her treasure into the back garden to kill it to death.
Anyway, the rest of the day was spent watching the carnage left by the storm all over England, and thinking to myself that seeing as I live in a house surrounded by large trees, I was very lucky indeed not to have had any of them fall on me.
Not the most exciting of memories, but, as folks say, I was there!
Were you?

*7,307 days, if anybody is interested.
**Which in the case of my hair, was a relief.