Warning: Storm Joshua Approaching

Storm Brian hasn’t been much to write home about in Reading – a bit of a breeze in the afternoon for an hour or so and branches waving around a bit in the wind, but that was about it! Not that I’m complaining of course, as I have no desire to be retrieving garden chairs from trees and sheds from neighbours’ gardens.

The lack of drama was probably most apparent because of the comparison with Storm Joshua which tends to hit our house at least once a day, wreaking havoc and leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. Storm Joshua strikes without warning, without reason and with no indication of how long it might last!

Fortunately the damage tends to be fairly minor – perhaps puzzle pieces or building blocks randomly strewn over the floor, or a few overturned bikes and cars lying around the house for no obvious reason. But given the frequency of Storm Joshua the clean up operation is pretty much unending. Much like painting the Forth Bridge, by the time the splattered debris is tidied away in one room the storm has hit other parts of the house, often with even greater force.

As you can see in the picture above Storm Joshua is powerful enough to knock planes and helicopters out of the sky. When it’s in full effect it’s best to close the door, run away and hide in a secure area until it passes.

But the media never report on Storm Joshua. There are no charity collections to help cover the cost of the repeated clean up. There hasn’t even been a temporary Facebook profile photo template. It’s as if no one cares.

So tonight spare a thought for those of us affected by Storm Joshua as the clean up operation begins again and will continue late into the night…