Monday 2 February 2009

It's (s)no(w) joke!

This snow malarcky has rather amused me today.

Panic! What do we do? Will our whole infrastructure, indeed, our whole way of living collpase under such grave circumstances?!

Well Ceredigion is still here, unbowed, unabashed and only very, very , very, very slightly the whiter shade of normal!

I've heard from many friends this morning who couldn't make it into London to work which gives them that bonus extra day off. Or then does it? In such circumstances should it be a day off or just an opportunity to work from home? I know which one I'd choose given the luxury!

As it is, I woke this morning at 6.30am to the gentle, caressing sounds of Strauss on Classic FM with the soothing tones of Jay Videlingum reading the 6.40am and 7am news bulletins. From the headlines, it sounded as if even Cardigan might get snow it was that bad! So I went to the window to see if there was just a dash of the white stuff on car and house roofs. Don't be so daft! In Cardigan?! Snow?! Ha! So to work I went and before I knew it I was fast asleep on the bus (it has been to known to happen from time to time). I suddenly awoke near the end of my journey, in Llanbadarn, and suddenly, as if by some magical deliverance, it was white! Not that white really, but whiter than Cardigan!

But as ever, its been pretty calm going here. I'll be off home to Cardigan in a few minutes and expect not to see a flake of snow when I arrive. This is deepest darkest west Wales after all. In over 8 years of living or being connected with Aberystwyth, I can only remember one truly impressive snowfall in which a thick blanket of snow covered the town centre, the trunk road through town, the lot - back in February 2004.

So, as I've sat here working away during the day, the constant reminders of the 'carnage' being encountered across the country, does amuse me. I'm sure our friends in Russia, Mr Medvedev and Mr Putin would be chuckling away if they saw how much utter chaos such a relatively small amount of snow (relative to what they experience at least) was having on us here.

That in all fairness is the point - this isn't something we're used to in such quantities in such a short space of time. Perhaps however, with global warming accelerating, we should see this as the beginning of a norm. Weather patterns are so distrupted nowadays who's to say more severe weather like this is not going to become an increasingly normal occurence?

But going back to my general feelings as the day has unfolded, as Duncan Borrowman had it on his Facebook status today, 'how to invade England. 1 Wait for it to snow. 2. Walk in.

I couldn't have put it beter myself!

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