Snow In London, part 2

This is the view from my craft room, you can just see the O2, which was in fact the millennium dome. As I said one inch of snow and London comes to a standstill.
Francis (with an i) left for work and as he had moved his car off our hill and onto the major bus route he was in fact able to get out to the main roads, but he never made it to the M25.
The main A20 out to the M25 was fairly bad, but when he got to the slip road for the M25, the snow and ice where piled up and he wisely thought it a bad idea. So he headed home.
I was pleased to see him, he really hasn't had to drive in that sort of weather before, so I was a little concerned. Seriously don't like being in it myself and I've been driving for 30yrs.
We are just not geared up in this country for a snowflake to fall on a road, never mind an inch of the stuff.

When the kids were small, we lived in rural Spain, up in the mountains and got serious snow there, yet I never remember having any trouble with getting down the mountain or back up for that matter. Goodness knows how we are going to cope in London when globe warming makes winters worse!!!!!!


This is my car, taken from the craft room, as you can see there is the tiniest amount of snow on it, yet there's no way I could get it off the hill. Just take a look up and down the hill.


If you follow the car tracks you can see that one of the neighbors actually slid into the spot the car is stop at. It has been funny watching the cars slide down the hill, they go all over the place.
All the cars at the top of the hill will be stuck there till the snow goes. Which is why there are so many of them up there. You can't see them all but there are 5 stuck up there, due to the fact that the hill gets steeper up there as the hill goes round yet another bend, then rises again.
The snow is now compacted and as a result it has turned to ice, making it even harder to drive.

I use to get the family out and we would use the salt and grit on the road to clear it, but it got to the point where it was just us doing it and I thought to hell with it! We had done it for over 10yrs.
Why should we be the only ones out there getting the road ready for others. So I began to move the car on to the bus route and walk to it. Do you know the neighbors had the cheek to moan about us not doing it. What a nerve! I simply refuse to do the hill anymore for the benefit of people who don't help and then moan. Last time we did it was 3yrs ago and since we stopped no-one else has even bothered and the grit bin has been empty for over 2yrs now.
It's not that we minded doing it, it was more the expectation that no one else needed to do, as we would.

So I do find it highly amusing that people can't get off the hill and that most of the neighbors now see a flake of snow fall and run to their cars to move them, so they can go about their business.
Perhaps they should have been more grateful, either that or got on a shovel!!!!!!

Another thing I have seen today is a lot of people walking up or down the hill and one thing that really stands out is the amount of women walking with their men folk and yet the women are the ones either pushing a buggy or carrying heavy shopping.
Now what is all that about!
My mother said once that I was a born feminist. Might have something to do with being the only girl and the youngest....no way was I going to wait hand and foot on that lot, way too out numbered. (My adopted sister E didn't come along till I was a teenager)
But I have to say that despite being a feminist to my core, I am never expected to carry heavy bags nor would I be the one to push a buggy in bad weather.
But then maybe that's because in my family the men are Gentlemen.
What sort of men let women carry the heavy shopping on icy roads and pavements??????
Feminist or not, I still like to be treated like a lady, even thought there isn't a man in my family that doesn't know what I am capable of. Even if I am clothes shopping my brothers, partner and boys, never let me carry the shopping....are we odd or just a little old fashioned?????
Either way, I like it.

I can hear all my American friends laughing, as we really don't know what snow is here.
My British friends will know exactly what I mean, by one snow flake and the country stops.