Andrew and Debbie: London Snow!!!!!

Well, hello everyone! for once it's not all that long between blog posts!

Last night (1st February) London recieved the most snow it has had in 20 years, and it is predicted to be more of the same tonight, blanketing london in the most snow for nearly 40 years.

here's an excerpt from a newspaper:

"London was brought to a standstill today by the heaviest snowfall in 20 years. Hundreds of thousands of commuters were left stranded as up to 17.5cm of snow fell in just a few hours. and with more snow on the way, the capital will recieve its deepest covering since 1964.

Ever bus was withdrawn from service for the first time in living memory, with experts predicting the icy blast will cost businesses millions of pounds.

the Chaos wreaked by snow included:

Trains from 10 of London's 11 Tube lines cancelled or suspended.
All the city's 6800 busses taken off the roads.
650 flights at heathrow canceled. London City airport closed and gatwick and stansted badly hit by delays.
Hundreds of schools closed.

the blizzards are expected to continue for at least another day, with snow also forecast for thursday and Friday."

Of course you know..... this means this blog post is primarily going to consist of gratuitous snow shots....

I woke up a bit earlier than usual as I intended to get into work for an early start. took one look out the window and went and jumped on debbie to get her up.... "waaahht..?" she said in an annoyed and groggy manner. this was of course an unacceptable attitude on such a brilliant day so I opened the blind and she jumped out of bed instantly, sleepyness forgotton! "SNOWWWW!!!!!!!! AAAHHHHHHH!!!!! QUICK - TAKE A PHOTO!!!"

So we did:

after deciding that debbie should have the camera for the day, I went off to work.

Debbie took the next lot of photos:

This is the snow in the morning down our street before everyone trod it into icy mush.

The snow in the morning (about 6:45am) was very deep (most of it past ankle height) very cool to walk on. hopping out of the tube once reaching the city was another matter entirely. and I discovered the downside of snow.... if you havn't experienced walking to work in the city after heavy snow - you can experience a small bit of what it feels like using the following method:

Take a couple of bags of crushed ice and empty them on the floor, now walk on it without falling over.

I thought snow was all fluffy and light, but after nearly 20cm of it falls and then hundreds of people walk over it to get to work it quickly becomes the consistancy of crushed ice. combine this with business shoes and you get a pretty interesting trip to work:

You know when you go ice-skating; there's always the people who are brilliant, then there's always the newbies who are clutching the rails but then you get an in-between group of people who look like they've done it a couple of times but really aren't entirely comfortable with the whole thing... constantly overballancing and looking like they're going to fall over any second but somehow managing to hold it together? well, without fail, every person walking to work in the city this morning had a gait similar to what I just described.... business people in suits were slipping and sliding all over the place. it was so hilarious I would have normally been laughing out loud, except for the fact that I was too busy trying to concentrate on not falling over myself.

and the roads!!! crossing a road was even worse - icy slipperyness on the footpaths, icy sludge on the roads.....you can't see the normally obvious inconsistancies in the road so you end up stepping in a minor ditch and getting wet socks......

in any case, Debbie took the camera into work and snapped the following beauties:

see the icy sludge here:

debbie's security guard took this photo of her (note the ice and sludge)

This one would have to be my favorite:

It snowed all day. I got into work at about 7:30 or so and while normally there would be about 15 people in the office at this time of day, there was a one person other than me in the office for the next hour. my boss called and that was when I found out that every single bus in London had been taken out of service. apparently they just kept sliding all over the place so they took them off the roads. also found out then that every single line except the northern and victoria lines were mostly suspended.... I guess it was either due to the bits of the trainlines that were not underground.

so anyway, by 10am there were three of us in my team and about 10 people total out of an office of 100 that had managed to get in. my boss called again and said that he was going to try to make it in and would take anyone who was in to lunch.

Lunchtime came and we wisely rang arround to see what places were open. The only one we could find that was close enough to not trudge through ice and sludge for too long was an expensive italian resturant. but our boss promised us lunch so we we had good italian food... with entree.... and wine... and coffee. I think we all just wanted to draw it out so we didn't have to go back to work.

there were 8 of us that made it in to lunch and most of them left immediately after to begin their 3-4hr trip back to their house, for most people it was going to be a lot of walking followed by a delayed train journy. Debbie e-mailed me at about 2pm saying she was going home. I heroicaly stayed until 4pm, at which point my boss patted the three of us remaining on the back and told us "that's enough boys, time to go home". hey, who am I to dissagree with my boss.

here are some shots that debbie took when she got home:

Note the ice!!!