We got back to Bristol on January 3 - a new year begins. So, to gently break us into going back to work and more wintry days we had not opened our Christmas presents - we needed something to look forward to when we returned from holiday. After unpacking and eating dinner we sat down to read all our messages and open our presents - and again we are reminded of all our special friends and family back in kiwi land. The next day the birthday girl slept in and had a lazy day. The afternoon was spent in bed blissfully sleeping with the hope that the cold I'd pick up somewhere would go away with a little bit of TLC (no such luck!!). When Harry got home, it was more present opening (wow are we spoilt) and then off to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - Bristols pantomime for this year. And then some mental preparation for my first day back at work. It didn't take long to get back into the flow of things...but then the rest of the week went all pear shaped. Tuesday night it snowed - heavily. In preparation (because everyone told me at work it was going to happen) I took my laptop home and we didn't even attempt to get to work (Haz's work was closed for the day, like most schools and training institutions in England). Harry and I had a bit of a wander around St Andrew's Park in the afternoon and saw Bristolians having fun on what should have been a school and work day. The rest of the week I was in bed - watching it snow and listening to the intermittent scraping of ice and snow from car windows - and feeling very sorry for myself (but at least a cold eventually gets better - it was all put into perspective with the earthquake in Haiti - Brits raised £2million in 36 hours for aid to the Haitians which was generous given the economic climate over here). The weekend was a quiet one for us as it just kept on snowing and I was still feeling a tad unwell. Anyway, direct from the meterological office (just in case you thought I was exaggerating)
"The current big chill is a result of high pressure over the polar region, which has pushed cold air out of the Arctic towards much of northern Europe, parts of Asia and the US. Winds from the north and north east, rather than the south and south west, have brought freezing temperatures to the UK. Thousands of schools are closed and travellers have been hit by major disruption after further heavy snowfall hit large parts of the UK. Parts of Scotland and northern England have had more snow, which has also spread to southern areas of the UK. The military was called in after up to 1,000 vehicles were stranded when snow blocked the A3 in Hampshire overnight... The worst-hit areas have been central southern England and parts of the South West (that's us by the way)and South Wales...Once the snow has finally cleared away, ice will be the major problem for all of us as we go into the night...Temperatures of -10C (14F) in rural areas - and even as low as -20C (-4F) in parts of Scotland - will cause snow to freeze, making for treacherous driving conditions...Nearly half of workers have not travelled to work, according to a snap poll of more than 460 companies by employment law firm Peninsula. It suggested 44% of employees had decided to work from home...Among the airports closed are Bristol...Twelve lorries jack-knifed on the A1 near the Angel of the North overnight, and police also had to deal with two dozen lorries stuck on the main A1 across the River Tyne at Blaydon Bridge"
So, my conclusion after nearly 10 days of snow... Snow is so pretty when it is wistfully falling from the sky or sitting pristine and white on the landscape. It looks so soft and almost cuddly. As it falls you can watch it decide whether to hang precariously from a branch, a wing mirror of a car, a clothesline or a fence, or it might choose to land gracefully on a hill, a road, a roof or a frozen lake where it sits calmly and waits for the sunshine to arrive. But once it is gritted, salted, shovelled, driven over, trampled on, slid on and played with it becomes slushy, muddy, dirty, lumpy and icy. It takes on a forlorn appearance which is accentuated when it begins to melt and starts to drip from the trees or the snow man or when it is piled into a corner. They said that this week would be warmer inside your freezer than outside and I believed them particularly once the breeze came up and a wind chill factor was added to the already zero temperatures. And since I've been slowly nursing myself back to health we've done something we have never done before - taken the car to work all week. A week later the snow is nearly all gone - just when I was beginning to feel better and wanted to go out and play.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
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