Today has been crunchy, slushy and slippery! For me it has been another excuse to get my long abandoned walking boots out again. I was pleasantly surprised to find they were warm and comfortable although the toes are very scratched. With the deluge of snow yesterday they made getting through it so much easier. So many people yesterday were trying to walk through the snow in high heels, looking tenuously at the ground. I suppose they could be forgiven since London usually misses the snow. Today the pristine white has gone, the ground is red and murky brown, the roads grey slush. Tubes and buses are up and running again and the London newspaper has shown London’s Mayor Boris Johnson jogging in the snow with shorts and trainers. Quite what this is meant to show, I have no idea. That even a politician is not adverse to freezing? Truly we are back up to speed with the rest of the country that hasn’t received any of the white stuff.
Snow dream?
Yesterday was a truly magical and unexpected day. Well it wasn’t that unexpected…if you read my earlier blog post you’ll see I had noticed that the snow was settling. Reading everyone else’s blogs I can see that most people had a good fun filled snow day! So I shall treat you to more of the same!
Shepherds Bush at 7am!
Yesterday my day began at 6am. My flatmate Tea Leaves woke the entire household by screaming “SNOW!!!” at the top of her lungs, waking the flat up in its entirely. At this very vocal stimulus we all jumped out of bed to look out of the kitchen window. The medics were meant to be going to their hospital placements but now all was confusion and uncertainty. Would the trains be running? Would the buses be running? The TFL website confirmed their deepest fears, the buses were not running and most of the tubes had shut. No-one could go anywhere. Gradually emails began to appear in in-boxes; College is cancelled for today, teaching is cancelled etc.
An abundance of closures and cancellations
Anyone reminded of The Day After Tomorrow?
As a flat we decided that if we couldn’t go anywhere then it was a day off from usual activities. We went to Brook Green to make a snow man. I decided this activity was a necessary activity since I couldn’t remember how to make a snowman and the prospect of throwing snow balls was beginning to look exciting. So I donned my waterproof trousers, walking boots and a large red umbrella and headed out…
I discovered that to make a snowman you had to start off with a ball of snow and then roll it in fresh snow until it assumes a larger size. So for ages you have a small ball of snow that doesn’t seem to be very large until…suddenly it’s large. A little like imagining an exponential growth curve for all you hopeful biologists out there!
Snow is actually very heavy!
Tea Leaves, Orange Squash and Coffee Bean with the beginnings of the Darlek Snowman!
So we made a Darlek snowman because we weren’t too good with the design of the snow man. In fact I’m not very sure it looks like a Darlek myself…
"Well I think it looks like a Darlek!"
We discovered other more crafted snowmen on Brook Green. For a capital where the snow never usually settles, Londoners put up some very good shows of snow craftsmanship!
This pair had a keyboard and a mouse!
We also had quite a legendary snow ball fight as well as playing stuck in the mud. Yes we had reverted to being kids for the day!
Narnia would have been proud!
After all the excitement of playing in the snow we all went home still in a slightly dazed fashion. Grit had been dumped on many of the pavements but wasn’t having much effect. Cars were parked in the strangest places and empty buses littered bus stops, evidently not going anywhere. Tomorrow everything would be up and running again but for now it was nice to be set into a snowy London dream!
Today by contrast, most of London’s transport system is up and running again. Buses are operating to their normal time table and the tubes are running again with a few closures. However London side streets are lethal. A lot of the snow has frozen. As I was walking to my friends house to work on our shared biology project, I saw a women slip and fall over. Luckily she got back up again, embarrased but unhurt. The Snow Dream has turned into Crunchy Ice!