Thames Barrier Raised

Well, so this morning we are facing "Extreme danger to life and property", peering out the window I'm afraid the only sign of anything untoward occuring is the obvious sight of the Thames Barrier being raised (if you click that picture I have put a note on the flickr page to show you where to look), and they hadn't even put all of it up when I took this photo, although looking out the window now it does appear to be stretching all the way across...haven't checked the news yet, but the tidal surge was supposed to strike the east coast at about 8am, guess it will take a couple of hours to work it's way all the way up the Thames, pictures later on if Canary Wharf goes underwater (although it's not going to get my feet wet as I'm on the 20th floor)... ;)

In other news, had a bit of a panic on the tube today thanks to a bit of slightly unusual behaviour - just as the doors were closing at Bermondsey someone (just out of the corner of my eye, as I was reading my copy of Metro at the time) appeared to throw a large rucksack onto the packed carriage and then walked away! My mind immediately ran along a very unpleasant fantasy whereby the rucksack started smoking, everyone panicked (followed by mass death and destruction) I looked around for an emergency button and couldn't see one anywhere, looked around to see if anyone else was worrying and then noticed a very small backpacker sat on the floor on the *other side* of the door reaching between someones legs to get a book out of a side pocket...Grrr...