Monday, February 02, 2009

Here Comes The Snow

London is one of the world's foremost cities. It has a massive and impressive transport system, with hundreds of local railway stations, mainline terminuses, light rail, underground, and buses galore (they ferry 6 million people around, I heard today, but was that a day or a week?)

The last time it snowed this hard was in 1991. I had a new car and a new job, and I didn't want to prang the car, so I took a bus. Yes, a bus. They were running reasonably well. I think the snow was worse than this, but the buses were running.

Today, there are no buses, trains and tubes are hit and, frankly, the city has ground to a halt. This is because the snowfall has been so heavy, says our illustrious mayor, Boris.

Boris, THIS IS LONDON! You can't let it grind to a halt because a few inches of snow fall.

Many schools are shut. Mine depends on school buses ferrying kids in, and they are not running. At least I won't prang my present car today. I won't get paid, either.

Watching the cats first thing was funny. They've never seen proper snow before. Beano was first out. Then Mitzi went, stepping into his footprints (difficult for her, he's huge, she's tiny). When Beano came back, he stepped in the prints he made on the way out. Dead comical.

My car has a nice, snug snow coat.


The garden furniture has its hat on.


A blackbird on the ground, one on the feeder. I feel so sorry for the birds in this weather,
and for foxes and squirrels and all the other little creatures that struggle to survive.



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13 comments:

  1. judith3:15 pm

    i think its a disgrace are major cities cannot cope with the snow. all those cut-backs over the years and this is what happens.

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  2. jazzy3:37 pm

    a little bit of snow (let's face it, it's WINTERTIME), and official institutions can't handle it... why i am not surprised??

    aaaw you cats, lol. i almost can picture it in my head.

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  3. Tricia9723:44 pm

    Val, sorry, but I need another English lesson. What are the tubes?

    All that snow is so beautiful! Living in Florida, I never get to see the snow. Even if we DID get snow here it wouldn't bother OUR transportation system, because it is now and would remain the CRAPPIEST one on Earth! LOL

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  4. val3:47 pm

    Tricia, the Tube is the underground railway, known in the US as the subway. In them run - tube trains!

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  5. Jane4:36 pm

    Doesn't London know there's a recession going on? Shutting down the city because of a few inches of snow isn't going to help.

    When it snows here (which is often) my cat Emily sits in the window and 'bats' at the snowflakes :)

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  6. Eliza5:05 pm

    You had more snow than us..Laura will be jealous :-)

    Our cats are spending as little time as possible outside..they go out the catflap and come back in like they have the hounds of hell after them..as I type all four of them are on the sofa, slowly edging Laura off

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  7. VivB7:04 pm

    I remember in the 60's & 70's we had this this type of weather all the time and things didn't come to a grinding halt then?

    What I don't understand is that we have known for just over a week that this has been coming and where were the gritters ? Three weeks ago we had them along our street and it wasn't even that cold and there was no frost ????

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  8. Anonymous7:31 pm

    You had more snow than us too Val, but I think we caught you up this afternoon! I still find it embarrassing that the UK is wholly unable to cope with more than 2 snowflakes landing at the same time without utter chaos ensuing. Did I hear right and there's a 50 mile traffic jam sitting on the M25 this evening?! Perhaps we'd better send the Government to Norway to see how to keep things moving in the winter!

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  9. Anonymous1:32 am

    now me i like the snow i think it's beautiful though can be dangerous when driving in it a little snow is cool but a lot can become a problem this blog is really neat

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  10. Anonymous3:56 am

    even in the snow, your garden is lovely.
    as i was telling tess, us mid-westerners are made of very stern stuff. snow?? we no afraid of stinkin' snow!!

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  11. JoJo10:10 pm

    Pretty cool Val! Everything always looks so nice w/ a fresh coat of snow, pain in the arse though it is.

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  12. SnarkAngel4:03 am

    Chicagoans deal with this all the time, so it makes sense for the city to invest in many, many snowplows and salting trucks. I doubt this city would shut down unless we had more than a foot and a half in a very short time. But cities such as yours, that don't get heavy snows regularly (like our southern cities), can't justify the investment in lots of heavy-duty and expensive snow removal equipment, not to mention the labor costs of running the equipment. I think Chicago even cut back this year, although people still managed to get around fairly well, albeit with some delays. Hopefully it will melt fast, Val!

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  13. Anonymous9:12 am

    Thank U for sharing...

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    Vince

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