“Sun is shinin’ in the sky
There ain’t a cloud in sight
It’s stopped rainin’ ev’rybody’s in a play
And don’t you know
It’s a beautiful new day hey, hey.”

It is indeed a glorious day in Bangkok here today. The sun is shining, the sky is bright azure blue, there’s a gentle breeze taking the edge off the heat. Hard to believe that a wall of water is heading towards us, promising to inundate the entire city (according to Prime Minister Yingluck – she’s such a ray of sunshine) to a depth of one metre or more for the next four or so weeks.

Rather than relaxing and taking in the gorgeous weather I’ve been rather busy today. I’ve taken more furniture upstairs. I’ve cut large polycarbonate sheets to put over the doorways. I’ve done my final loads of washing in preparation for the washing machine to be moved indoors and placed on the kitchen countertop. (I’ve hired some burly men for that job. They’re coming in an hour or so.) I’ve wrapped the large air-conditioner for the sitting room in multiple layers of clingfilm and newspaper, the thinking being that the newspaper will filter out most of the dirt in the water – though that may just be wishful thinking. Now I rely on the small air-conditioner for the study to cool the whole of the downstairs. Much as I’d like to think it’s “the little engine that could”, I rather expect to be disappointed (and overly sweaty).

Still to do: put some pipes in the floor drains in the downstairs shower room and seal them in; put a sandbag in the downstairs toilet; seal the polycarbonate sheets to the doors with silicone mastic and tape over the joins.

If the floods don’t rise too fast I’ll wrap the study air-conditioner. I also plan on raising the fridge on four chairs and similarly raising the dining table. There’s nothing I can do about the sofa. If the waters come it will be ruined. My vast bookcase is in a similar situation.

The emergency pack is ready to go, with clothes for a few days, my passport, my medicines and my notebook. The plan is to head south – perhaps to Hua Hin or Cha Am. Put Whisky in a kennel and find an affordable guesthouse or hotel. Of course, getting out of the city could be a problem: idiots seeking to protect their vehicles have parked their cars, pickups, minivans and even buses on the inner lanes of all the elevated express ways, often three lanes deep, leaving but a single lane for anyone trying to flee Bangkok. And a single broken down vehicle will cause gridlock.

On the plus side, if Kevin Costner is planning on making Water World 2, he can probably do it much more cheaply in Bangkok over the next few weeks.

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