Oh well, we now have a good excuse for not sending Christmas cards out - the Post Office DOESN`T HAVE ANY STAMPS!!!
You may have heard about our huge explosion on Sunday morning (well it woke ME up, and many other folk!) and it`s about 80 miles away! Our biggest fuel storage site (at Hemel Hempstead) in the country provided us with the biggest fire in Europe since the war.
At the same time it wrecked the place that provides the stamps, the computer server that serves several of our hospitals, and demolished many businesses near the site. Miraculously only 45 were injured (mostly slightly) and no-one killed, despite it registering as a 2.3 earthquake. About 2,000 people were evacuated, 100 schools closed (most reopening tomorrow, as the fire in 20 fuel tanks is more or less under control).
An awful lot of people have badly damaged homes, though - an awful situation for Christmas - or any other time, come to that. The low cloud cover held the sound of the explosion so that it spread out sideways - resulting in people up in Yorkshire, and even across the North Sea hearing it. Incredible. Spectacular sunsets in Yorkshire, due to the air polution, but the winds blowing it South and West now.
A lot of folk had a lucky escape, though. Had it happened on a Monday morning there would most likely have been thousands killed.
Pat P