Part of the unreality of it all was suddenly becoming the focus of media attention.

The village was full of media folk and you'd literally bump into them on street corners wanting to do interviews.
The first interview we did was with Radio Berkshire. They turned up on the doorstep looking for houses that had flooded internally. We'd become used to opening the door to firemen or soldiers so this didn't seem as strange as it might have. They recorded an interview that focused on the famous piano.

It was February 14th Valentine's Day we'd booked a meal at Picollo Venetia before all this kicked off but fetching as Sandra looked in her thigh length waders we didn't really feel like it. I managed to joke about it, referring to the gondola, tied up in front of the restaurant and how romantic it potentially was.

We got used to doing newspaper interviews. I was quoted in the Guardian and I think Sandra did the Telegraph. It got to the point where Sandra turned down an interview with Sky because she thought she'd done enough. She agreed to an interview with CNN though in the hope her friend Marcie in the States might see it.

The most memorable interview was with ITN. It was all in a good cause but we effectively 'lied' on TV. I've mentioned how good Churchmead School were to us. Letting us park our cars above the waterline on school grounds was only the start of it. The headmaster regularly dropped by the 'barricades' to chat and office staff would knock on people's doors to make sure they were OK.

They also, and this was our downfall, offered to let us use their showers. Now this was a really kind offer but, if you remember the structure of our three storey houses meant once we'd paddled through our hall and made our way upstairs we had access to a proper bathroom and all the other facilities we needed at home. Unfortunately ITN had somehow heard of the shower offer and insisted that we should be filmed trooping to the school with our towels. We were naturally reluctant but they were very keen and we, out of gratitude wanted to help the school. So we were persuaded and somewhat sheepishly were filmed entering the school with our bath towels. They had to show us where the showers we were supposed to have been using were but reluctantly we gave them their footage. The piece went out on ITV news that evening which left us feeling more than a little guilty. At least one of Sandra's work colleagues was startled to hear her voice coming out of the TV that evening.

There was to be more media attention when the Royal princes descended on us but I'll keep that for another episode.

I've added a couple of videos that went out at the time.

SORRY IF THE STORY IS A BIT ALL OVER THE PLACE? THAT'S A BIT HOW IT WAS WITH THE WATER! HOPE YOU ARE ENJOYING AND WILL WANT TO VOTE.