Wrong kind of winter brings England to a halt England was plunged into a Siberian winter this morning with train company websites frozen right across the South East. A chill wind from Russia dumped a mountain of snow on England, with some gardens experiencing drifts of up to 18 inches deep. Panic buying of milk, prosciutto, Bordeaux and other essentials promptly broke out …
"FECK OFF YOU PIPE SMOKING FERRET BOTHERING CLOTH CAPPED LOSERS ."
I have never lost my cloth cap. or, more appropriately, 'av ne'rl ustus cap, thi big southern jessie!"
I did however lose my ferret once, but i wasn't bothered. I just smoked my pipe and contemplated the mysteries of nature.
Woke up later than usual, walked to the main road and looked ok, visited a couple of local site, including a long hil, going down was fun as did not really want to brake and slide down the hill.
Far too many people tailgating me and other drivers
Tried to work on the laptop, but yet again no intranet or internet
Local hills being used to good effect. although some people found it wet in the ditch at the bottom of the hill
"You could write the best article ever written but if only idiots comment "
Hey, this isn't *my* job. And if it were my job and I didn't like it, I'd not do it.
It's not like we're *forcing* Sarah Bee to do this, are we.
My point was and still is that there are many things on this site that a lot of people don't like and are sick fed up to the back teeth with. Yet still this site lets them happen and even, in many cases, join in.
And if we complain about it we're told "stuff it, we're keeping it". Well, people WILL keep doing the stuff that annoys you Sarah, because it doesn't annoy *them* doing it.
>Well, people WILL keep doing the stuff that annoys you Sarah, because it doesn't annoy *them* doing it.
That's it exactly. We keep doing the things that annoy you, because in fact it gives us tremendous pleasure.
I think possibly in the end we might win. Not that it's a competition. But yeah.
If you managed to get this far down the comments column, you clearly have some spare time on your hands. I did.
My bosses wouldn't let me go out in my Scooby today, insisting I was only insured to drive the Pug307 the cheapskates give me. Bah!
On the subject of CLINTS, there used to be a video hire shop in my area called FLICKERS. Didn't trade for long... There must be a porn film featuring C*nt Eastwood, surely?
Paris because she has a warm place I can park my cold bits.
"And besides it's several inches of snow here. It's hardly a 'sprinkling'.
God."
It's hardly the Siberian apocalypse that londoner's are screaming about in terror either. God! *rolls eyes*
I managed to get down the tiny grit-less snow filled country roads up 'ere in t'north (so probably more snow than that there london) ... no problem in my puny 2 wheeler Ford Focus, although I did get slightly nervous when a lonesome van did a complete 360 in front of me at less than 20 mph....
Mines the one going down the spooky deserted lampless snow-filled country roads with no mobile signal or houses for miles on way home at approx 18:30 tonight.... :(
Since using the trains was out of the question (a rolling set of various failures and suspended services), and I wouldn't drive in to work when it was fine, let alone with snow and wallies to contend with, I changed my schedule for the day.
Primary task (snowman building) was completed by 10am, with snowball fight afterwards - though my wife didn't want me to throw anything at her, since my snowballs hurt apparantly.
Secondary tasks such as finding out why the downstairs radiators didn't work, sorting out the bins, making sure elderly neighbour was Ok and playing Guitar Hero world tour with the family (kids schools closed) were all completed and now it's waiting to see what happens for tomorrow.
It was a good day today.
ttfn
I'd say you're bob-on there, duck.
As a Midlander (Leicester, Lincolshire, then Birmingham) now living in Scotland, via time spent in the North (Manchester & Sheffield), I've always been affronted by Londonshire's Midlands-denial. As such, I've always felt Northern rather than Southern when pushed to choose sides and given only those two options.
Regarding onions, I'd say that as long as they're slathered in gravy, I'm happy. There's another dividing line for yers: gravy. Chips ain't chips without it.
Exception: the Edinbuggers in the East, with their "sauce".
Win? Who's "losing"? Nobody.
You whinge about how hard done by you are. I feel good that I made you notice.
You put up stuff that pisses me off, and you feel good about it too.
But it took you how long to admit you just troll, same as the ones you complained about waay back up the thread?
"And snow is fun! What's the fuss about?"
No fuss here ... must have been 2-3 inches lying when I put the bins out this morning and by the time I had to take the car in for its service the school-run mummies in their Chelsea tractors had done a nice job of clearing away the worst of the snow. Later in the afternoon, out on the mountain bike for a bit of bridleway-bashing in the snow - so yeah, snow is fun although the 'cleaning the salty crap off the bike' post-ride ritual is less so.
Predictably enough, the local rag was full of predictions of meteorlogical armageddon, which must be why it took a good 15 minutes to brush all the accumulated global warming off my motor.
Looks like I picked the right week to take off work :-)
Flames, 'cos my feet are cold.
It's a big mistake to go out in your 4x4 in these conditions. Every hundred yards or so there will be some idiot who has run his Mondeo into a ditch and sees you as his saviour. They'll run out in front of you waving their arms, and it is really difficult not to run them down, and not just because of the physics of friction and momentum.
This page is fun, from a Southerner (I mean, South of the freakking Equator, really) perspective. Where we have no snow, and have no clue that them nice people in the UK actually think their land is big enough to be meaningfully divided in "South", "Mid", "North", whatever. Now I know.
Although the "snow debate" is the same here where I live (Richmond, VA USA, not UK). If there is *forecast* of a quarter inch of snow, the rednecks buy all the bread and milk available, schools close, everyone is skidding around in the streets in their SUVs (if forecast snow actually falls, whic hasn't happened in a long while here), etc. Then it's time to hear from the Chicago/Minnesota/ Wisconsin/Canucks/etc people about how this is nothing, etc. They have a point though, since even a Brazilian like me has driven fine here without any special car (unless a 1990 Dodge is special in that sense).
As a Canadian I must say that I am disappointed in my fellow members of the Commonwealth. It takes a good half meter of snow before we even THINK of shutting down the buses here, and even then the subways would keep running (because they're, you know, underground). Even after all those are shut down we keep driving our cars, the vast majority of which are just front wheel drive sedans, none of this AWD or 4WD crap.
We don't turn a couple inches into international news.
Before I moved to Alaska I was always irritated by the surprised look on public transport's face that it snowed in winter. "It was unexpected" "It took us by surprise" "We aren't used to this".
Yes the unexpected took them by surprise and despite the same white stuff falling every year without fail in January and February, they aren't used to it.
Then you have the complete pricks that think 4X4 means their cars have the power to defeat the laws of physics. All 4 wheel drive does is provide additional traction, allowing you to pull away and keep moving in conditions that leave 2 wheel drive vehicles stuck.
An SUV or truck's greater clearance continues to allow you to keep moving when a six or more inches of snow would snag a smaller vehicle, and an altogether different technology prevents skidding. It's called electronic or automatic stabilization, telling your modern day ALL wheel drive vehicles what power to assign to each axle or even an individual wheel. However this doesn't mean you can drive 60 MPH in a foot of snow and expect to stop in the space of 20 meters when you catch up with the predictable 20 car pile up.
Ever been in a 4 wheel drive vehicle when it loses it in snow or ice? Not pretty. No amount of of corrective steering is going to get you out of that one and the top heavy part is a particularly impressive conclusion to the experience.
But despite all the gizmos of 4 wheel drive, the simple truth is the best weapons you have for snow are your tires and having the right ones for winter conditions.
I've lived in Alaska for 10 years and only had all wheel drive for 2. Never failed to get around, because if we had a problem getting to work or school when it snowed, the whole state would be shut down for 6 months of the year. Our airports don't close either, but that's another story.
Of course it helps that our local authorities aren't taken by surprise by the season of winter, ie they expect to happen every year, but simply using all weather tires allows the financial mortals amongst us to keep moving when the racing slicks they sell in the UK would fail.
So the moral is simple. Get better tires and drive at sensible speeds, even if you have a 4X4. Cos everyone is definitely going to laugh at you if you stick your shiny new jeep in a ditch.
funny how nobody is commenting about how a website that could be considered to be a bit of critical information infrastructure went down easier than a pint of lager.
do SWT and NRE have an emergency infromation procedure? they could of replaced all their site with a static page, and that would have sifficed for 98% of what people were looking for this morning. could have been edge-cached across the net.....
People forget how to drive in weather they don't see very often. Here in California, people can't even drive in the RAIN, FFS ... kinda makes our current drought a mixed blessing. I'm dreading the rain we're supposed to get this week. The roads are going to be slicker than owl shit for a couple days, unless/until we get enough water to wash the oil layer away ... and I have to commute from Sonoma to Ukiah for a couple days later this week. Was looking forward to biking thru' wine country, but I think I'll take something a little more protective ...
I learned to drive in the snow in Yorkshire in the mid-late '70s ... I remember riding my 250 Super Dream home from school[1] thru' 14" of snow one dark afternoon ... wasn't fun, but I didn't drop it. I did have studded tires, which undoubtedly are the only reason I made it. These days I know better and wouldn't attempt such a foolhardy stunt ...
When the wife and I lived in New Jersey, the neighbors lined up to watch the Californians pull out of their driveway for the first time, in about 10 inches of snow. They all went back indoors, disappointed by the lack of a show ...
Someone up there typed "RPMs" ... How many minutes did you measure those revolutions? It's "RPM" ... the "s" is implied in the "R". Pet peeve.
Sarah, ignore Mark. He's an angry yoof with too much time on his hands.
I wondered how long it was going to take for somebody to say "if it's snowing, then global warming can't be happening".
Listen, take a deep breath, wipe the spit from your chin, and then look in a dictionary. Weather is not the same thing as climate. The thing that is changing at the moment is climate, not the weather. AGW does not mean that it will never snow again in Britain. In fact, there's a pretty good chance that the Gulf Stream will get switched off and Britain ends up under several feet of snow for most of the year.
I'm sure even then there will still be people denying the facts in front of their eyes, but what else can you expect from a species that still things digital watches are a pretty neat idea.
>> Snarl up's ain't caused by the snow, they're caused by suvvern softies who ain't got a ruddy clue
>> how to drive in it!
Not so much southern softies as southern idiots. I was in the worst of it this morning (anti-clockwise M25 J10-7). The snow was about was about 10 inches deep (not counting drifts, though it hadn't drifted much), with frozen slush underneath fresh snow. Only two lanes were approaching clear (i.e. had snow and ice but you could just about manage 15-20 MPH safely - where the traffic allowed).
The best thing was watching the usual selfish, impatient southerners (mosty in 2WD cars/vans) as they tried overtake the queuing traffic by driving in the deep snow - they best most of them managed was about 50 feet before they started wheel spinning - and then ofcourse the impatient 4WD owners couldn't go anywhere either then which only added to my glee.
Surprisingly (or perhaps not) is that most of the delays were caused by articulated lorries, whose drivers either didn't have the sense go slowly enough to avoid jack-knifing or couldn't manage to work out how to avoid wheel spinning. I was also quite surprised to only see a single accident, however there were a lot of abandoned cars and lorries who had go stuck.
The worst thing of he whole 8 (normally 2) hour journey was when an articulated decided that the 30MPH (temporary speed limit) - that most of us were sticking to in deep slush - wasn't enough and decide to over take myself and a number of over vehicles. He covered us all in thick black slush; even on maximum wipers, I couldn't see a thing for 4-5 seconds (60-75 metres) - all for the sake of him traveling 5MPH faster.
No need for four wheel drive, or has everyone already forgotten about the African Top Gear.
I managed to cycle to work - 10 miles in the snow was fine, my glasses froze up again, but that's OK - I can still see around them.
Amazingly, this afternoon there seemed to a mass exodus from the building when it looked pretty outside, and people sat queuing for 45 minutes to get out onto the roads - meant it was nice and quiet when I left though.
@Perpetual Cyclist - Safer on the road IMHO, I tried a cycle path for about 20 yards, but the council don't think we need grip - so there's no gritting of the cycle paths (even right alongside the road)
This whole exchange is quite hilarious.
Frankly, I think the whole matter should be settled with a massive snowball fight in Nottingham. Apparently, it is in the MIDLANDS somewhere, so everybody should be able to get there fairly easily. The rail network is very reliable, I hear.
As regards the CLINT in Nottingham: I wrote it, Sarah. It was the only way I could get the word published on the Register... ;)
"This page is fun, from a Southerner (I mean, South of the freakking Equator, really) perspective. Where we have no snow,[...] Although the "snow debate" is the same here where I live (Richmond, VA USA"
If you are implying that:
-Virginia is in the southern hemisphere
-it doesn't snow in the southern hemisphere,
then my (already low) opinion of the Merkins' geography skills was still an overestimate.
If you're not implying any of the above... waitaminit, there's no way you're not implying at least the second one.
Mine is the one hung on the cross-country skis.
This post has been deleted by its author
This image was running around the Nottingham City Council intranet until somebody mysteriously pulled the plug....not just on the camera, but the whole system. Ironically it was the same day as the City Council was to announce its "credit crunch" redundancies. Maybe it was a message from the workers to the leader of the council - who knows, but if the cap fits (managed to fit a Northern / Biological reference in as well)
As a resident of one of the many hamlets such as this near Guildford I can confirm that yesterday was the day when every Landrover and Subaru owner drove around with a smug grin on their face. In my case I drove around sideways, just because. And all the BMW/Mercedes owners discovered the joys of traction control and stability management when there's no traction.
Uh
QUOTE
J Posted Monday 2nd February 2009 19:27 GMT
Happy
This page is fun, from a Southerner (I mean, South of the freakking Equator, really) perspective. Where we have no snow, and have no clue that them nice people in the UK actually think their land is big enough to be meaningfully divided in "South", "Mid", "North", whatever. Now I know.
Although the "snow debate" is the same here where I live (Richmond, VA USA, not UK)
ENDQUOTE
As Pierre already quoted in his response to J.
As far as I know, there IS no Redmond, VA, Brazil. Do you know of one?
Please try to keep up.
That be everyone in bed coz its stoppping them from doing something or other.
Really, you'd think that damn Artic had landed on us.
There are some countries in the world that measure snowfall in feet and still manage to make it to work in the morning.
*\. Grabbing my coat, as a bit of snow wont stick my legs to the ground.
Pipex`s call center is in the Phillipines mate, i know this as that was my job before tiscali sold it =]
Also for all the 4x4 drivers - i made it into work with a torqey FWD V6, its hard enough gripping in the dry ;D the snows fun! find an empty carpark and get some handbrake action on the go.
AC incase tiscali hunt me down for exposing their secrets.
"Last time I checked Nottingham was in the south of England along with Mancester. If you Londers would like to insist that anywhere above the M6 is North why don't you build a moat and be done with it."
Why build a moat? We have the Thames.. And yes, I am a South Londoner and proud of it..
Hold on...from Russia? Erm...we haven't seen any blizzards in recent days and we're between you and Russia...not only that but we're getting your snow later this week...from the south...
...I live in Finland
...look at a bloody map!
Paris...well, why not? Cold, snowy day, log cabin, roaring fire....
Although always embarrassing, I think Boris Johnson hit the nail on the head when he said words to the affect that you have a choice. You can either spend lots of public money on stuff to cope with a few inches of snow, and hardly ever use it, or you can opt to spend the public purse elsewhere, and 'take the hit' when the snow does occasionally fall.
If you are in a part of the world where snow is a common occurrence then of course you invest in the equipment, but otherwise it's not such an easy call.
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