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Did the earth move for you?
Feb. 27th, 2008 08:58 amI can't decide whether I did or didn't. I woke up, needed to go to the loo, and Tosca was agitated. But that's about it.
I do, however, remember the Great Storm of the night of 15-16 October 1987 and I certainly didn't sleep thorugh it. Well, not all of it. I had, I recall, being doing a ballroom dancing evening class (inspired by adventures in the Blackpool Tower Ballroom during my Open University summer school for the legendary U203 Popular Culture module) but had missed that evening of the 15th because it was pissing down. Later I woke up in the middle of the night, went to the loo, and remarked that it was blowing a hooley outside. This living at what was effectively the bottom of a canyon in Notting Hill, too, normally protected from excessive winds. I went to sleep again and didn't wake up, not till nearly nine anyway, because the radio alarm that generally woke me up didn't, because there was no electricity. I set off for work. Outside was apocalyptic - most noticeable, because this was at the beginning of the property boom in Notting Hill, was the littering of estate agents' boards amongst the torn-off branches. No Central Line tubes were running from beyond White City, so the ride into the City was unusually spacious, and I was one of only a dozen or so people to make it to the Chase Manhattan Bank that day. I gave up at lunchtime and went home. Nobody in the dealing rooms were trading - just as well because, coincidentally, Wall Street was busy crashing and bringing all the other world markets with it. I didn't see the effects of that until Monday, when I walked into a normally boisterous dealing room which was as silent as the grave, with the SEAQ screens dripping blood... (red for falling equities).
I do, however, remember the Great Storm of the night of 15-16 October 1987 and I certainly didn't sleep thorugh it. Well, not all of it. I had, I recall, being doing a ballroom dancing evening class (inspired by adventures in the Blackpool Tower Ballroom during my Open University summer school for the legendary U203 Popular Culture module) but had missed that evening of the 15th because it was pissing down. Later I woke up in the middle of the night, went to the loo, and remarked that it was blowing a hooley outside. This living at what was effectively the bottom of a canyon in Notting Hill, too, normally protected from excessive winds. I went to sleep again and didn't wake up, not till nearly nine anyway, because the radio alarm that generally woke me up didn't, because there was no electricity. I set off for work. Outside was apocalyptic - most noticeable, because this was at the beginning of the property boom in Notting Hill, was the littering of estate agents' boards amongst the torn-off branches. No Central Line tubes were running from beyond White City, so the ride into the City was unusually spacious, and I was one of only a dozen or so people to make it to the Chase Manhattan Bank that day. I gave up at lunchtime and went home. Nobody in the dealing rooms were trading - just as well because, coincidentally, Wall Street was busy crashing and bringing all the other world markets with it. I didn't see the effects of that until Monday, when I walked into a normally boisterous dealing room which was as silent as the grave, with the SEAQ screens dripping blood... (red for falling equities).
