Snow Day!

2nd February, 2009 – South London

Last Monday, I woke up to this:

10cms of snow : )

I was starting work at 7am that morning, so I left the house before 6am, knowing it’d take much longer to get in.

It turned out to be impossible.  You see, when it snows (which it rarely does on this scale – but even a sprinkling has a similar effect), life in London comes to a standstill.

All buses had been suspended the night before, and this was the state of my train station:

A train arrived but the driver said it wasn’t going anywhere because a train in front had broken down.  Not surprising.  In this city, public transport isn’t the most reliable on a good day.

Normally at this time my station would be busy, but most people had clearly decided to stay in.   People stood around, staring at the screens wondering when any train would arrive.

My camera clearly couldn’t cope with the extreme change of temperature:

It was amusing seeing people loitering around wondering what to do and how to get into work.  I’ve never seen so many strangers talk to each other!

Eventually, it was announced that all trains were suspended.  With literally no way of getting into central London, I walked back home.

There was only one shop open on the high street – a butcher’s:

I asked the butcher why he had bothered opening.  He told me that the shop had been around for 100 years, and a bit of snow wasn’t going to stop him now.  Even during wartime it had stayed open.  That is serious determination and resilience! Quite rare really these days.

He invited me in and showed me some old pictures.

Until now, I had never even noticed the shop even though I walk past it every day..

Of course, the snow was headline news for days.  It’s funny how a bit of white fluffy stuff can bring lives to a standstill.  I was happy enough to see my town looking the best it’s ever looked.

The next morning was a similar sight:

This time I managed to just about get on a train, although most of the snow in central London had turned to grey slush by now.  The ice that followed, on the other hand took about a week to clear, and meant that walking to the station was a seriously dangerous mission!  What would normally take 5 minutes took 20, and I could dedicate an entire blog entry to just how bad the roads were!  Us Brits love to rant about the weather.

Bring back the snow I say!

I never got to build a snow man.