Categories: uncategorized
Date: 10 February 2007 00:10:10
There has been rather a lot of snow around these parts for the last couple of days. Yesterday it snowed continuously from before I woke up (6.30) until the early evening. Our office remained open, all the schools we work with (with maybe one or two exceptions) were closed, so we had a really quiet day - very few phone calls to deal with, which meant I could actually get on and clear some paperwork. We were allowed to go home a little early if we needed to, but as I'd just started something that I couldn't leave overnight, I was the last one out of the office. At 4.10.
Knowing how slippery it gets round the train station in these kinds of weather (and that the bus stop is two minutes from my house rather than fifteen), I decided to get the bus into work today. Much the same as yesterday in work terms, while the snow started again mid-morning and didn't really stop 'til mid-evening. Again we were offered the opportunity to go home early, so I went to catch the bus home, which should have taken about fifteen minutes. An hour and ten minutes later, I decided to get off and walk the other half of the way. Yes, Birmingham had ground to a standstill, as the fresh snow fell on the mixture of frozen and mushy snow from yesterday and made driving very slow and slippery. I finally got home at 5.30, nearly two hours after I'd left the office and probably at least an hour before I would have arrived if I'd stayed on the bus enjoying the "entertainment" (two wannabe rappers practising at the back of the bus, fun for a couple of minutes until I actually made out the content of their rhymes...).
And then I took one of my friends in for the evening, he'd found himself unable to catch a bus or get a taxi out to his patch of Brum, but could get a train to where I am. So we got some pizzas and had a catch-up, and then another friend eventually showed up around 9.30 (presumably rush hour had almost finished by then...) to give him a lift home. Maybe the chaos is finally starting to clear and ease, but I'm not going to go out to find out. Especially when the latest layer of snow freezes up too.
And aside from the fact that I may get a few hits from confused Snow Patrol fans, the other reason I chose that title for this entry was that we were listening to SP while cooking pizzas, and came to the conclusion that they almost certainly weren't out tonight keeping an eye on proceedings or doing anything to help. Hello, is that Trading Standards? I wish to register a complaint...