Monday, February 02, 2009

Arctic storms blast England!!!

I'm having a little giggle right now. We woke up to a light dusting of snow this morning, and it has been snowing off and on since we woke up. It's been business as usual in our house, except that instead of doing stay-and-play Dylan and I went grocery shopping because we were, quite literally, out of food! I dusted off the car and got on with it.

Just got on-line to check my e-mails, and read a quick news story about how this is the worst snow to hit Britain in years. Stop the presses--it's SNOWED IN LONDON! All bus services have been suspended, as well as some train lines. Schools and businesses are shut all over the City, and both runways, that's right, BOTH runways at Heathrow are closed. Because they got a little snow.

Granted, they don't have the means of snow removal here that we ahve back home. But it dropped 7 inches of snow overnight while we were in Utah, and nobody was even phased. It really was just business as usual there. I've said it before, but I'm gonna say it again. The way the people in this country react to a little snow is laughable. Rain? Hail? Sleet? Fog so thick that you can't see more than 3 feet in front of you? No problem! SNOW!!! Panic ensues!

I was thinking about rain on Saturday. I played the piano for my friend Helen's daughter's baptism, and the Primary children sang "I Like to Look for Rainbows." Some lovely lyrics there. "I want my life to be as clean as Earth right after rain..." But it's not really appropriate for England. In the desert when it rains it washes all the dust off everything and it really is clean and beautiful. When it rains over here, especially in Lincolnshire with all of it's industries, it just covers everything in a black, sticky paste. It's nasty!

Today is Martin's first day as a "partially employed" person. He spent an hour or so working on the closet while Dylan and I did our usual morning things (mostly just to keep ourselves out of Martin's way so he could crack on). Although we desperately need more money than he's going to make, it will be nice to have him here to either watch Dylan while I plaster or paint or to finish things off on the house. Plus, it was really good to have breakfast as a family this morning.

I read a sad statistic today. 41% of all parents in England spend less than 2 hours a day with their children and less than a third have regular meals as a family. I love staying home with my baby boy and can't imagine dropping him off every morning before breakfast and picking him up just in time for dinner, bath, and bed. Why have kids at all if you aren't going to bother raising them?

Anyway, time to go make some lunch. Life still revolves around feeding the family and cleaning up after them, but I'm OK with that today!

2 comments:

Emma said...

It is quite amusing about the snow thing. I noticed that here in North Lincs we seem to get on with it, but when we lived in Bolton the slightest bit of snow brought both Manchester and Bolton to an absolute stand still! It's even worse when it snows in London, they think it is a huge tradgedy and start panic buying!
Townies go figure! he he!
Had fun last night :)

Adriane said...

We have the same sort of reaction her in West Texas. You would think it was the end of the world! I love the snow and the rain and I definitely don't get enough of either here. Oh well, this is where we plan to stay forever. We can have the house paid of right before Kevin will go on a mission in 9 years!