Head Above Water

Try, try, try I'm holding on, holding my
Head above water
It's so hard to keep my Head Above Water

Despite what Hall and Oates have to say about the subject, it is pretty easy to do here in Thames Ditton. In response to the emails and calls I have received from a number off you, I wanted to write in my blog that yes, I am okay, and still high and dry.

Sure there has been a lot of rain and I have been unable to ride as much as I would have liked to, but the area that I live in is not one of those that you have heard about in the news. Most of that rain is over in the west country, Cheddar, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Wales, etc.

Granted, the very name of my village: "Thames Ditton" means "Low-Lying Wetland on the Thames" but we're doing okay right now. Farm Island (which I understand has historically taken some pretty bad hits in flooding time) is still high and dry, relatively speaking. This picture was taken this morning.

A few of the home owners over there have been inserting the barrier doors into their flood walls, but most that I can see haven't. Checking this morning, there is still about four or six inches before the green at the end of the bridge goes under.

Ye Olde Swann, on the other hand, is not in as good shape. Their dining wharf (usually on the river) is now a part of the river. But even this is a misleading photo. Sure, their dock is under four inches of water, but that wall you see, is topped by their parking lot. They have feet to go before anyone gets their tootsies wet in the Swann!

Harris Corporation is faring well, the entry to the building is about five feet higher than the car park at the Swann; the first thing to go at the office would be the cycle hut where I park my bike each morning. But even that is three feet-or-more over the current river level.

The Villa, being a quarter-mile further inland, is far from being in any direct peril. All this could, of course change, as the flooding of the previous weeks makes its way down the Thames and the predicted rains of this week take their toll.

Wherever you are today, I hope you’re high and dry and happy!

Don Bergquist - 25 July 2007 - Thames Ditton, Surrey, UK

Head Above Water
by
Hall & Oates

Oceans emotions yeah we all feel the same
Afraid of undertow and great tidal wave
may go under many hundred of times
keep on kickin', baby throw me a line
C.C. Sick, Mai de Mer
Try, try, try I'm holding on, holding my
Head above water
It's so hard to keep my Head Above Water

No never envy the big fish in da Pond
It's deep and dark when all the surface is gone
My kind of humor kind of keeping me dry
On the horizon, water touches the sky
C. C. Sick, Mal de Mer
Try, try, try I'm holding on, holding my
Head Above Water
It's so hard to keep my Head Above Water.