Well we have survived the excitement of Christmas and New Year and we are now living the slow trudge through the snow of the next few months. More snow last night, but not as much as was threatened or promised. They tell us that this is the coldest weather that they have had here for over 20 years. So much for global warming. It still seems rather amusing that the whole city seems to go onto high alert (or go slow) whenever the hint of snow is announced. On my way home on the train last night, it was announced that “there will be major delays and disruptions on this train service tomorrow due to the forecast bad weather”. You would think that they could at least wait until it actually happens before they resign themselves to the fact. However it does seem to fit in with the national pastime of work avoidance. On the plus side, the snow seems to bring out the best in the strangers in the street. The pedestrians that we have been walking past for the last weeks with nary a smile, nod or signal of recognition, seem intent on engaging everyone in casual conversation … about the weather. It supports the famous observation that ‘if it wasn’t for the weather 90 percent of the population would have nothing to talk about.
After the dramatic forecasts of bad weather and knee deep snow, we looked out the window late last night, over our steaming coffee cups and watched the snow drifting down. It wasn’t particularly heavy, but it seemed consistent enough to cause chaos in the morning. It must have stopped shortly afterwards, as the morning greeted us with a thin layer (a couple of inches) of the white stuff over everything. It certainly improves the landscape and has the added bonus of putting a smile on most people’s faces. After watching four overcrowded trains go by this morning, I managed to find one on which I could squeeze onto, and made my way to work without too much trouble. Now everyone is talking about the heavy snow predicted this afternoon, and will we be able to get home. The options in most peoples minds seems to be (a) lets go to the pub and talk about it (b) lets go home now, we wouldn’t want to get stuck at work now would we. It’s one thing to get snowed in (at home), but it is quite another to get snowed out (at work). We read an article in the news the other day about a woman up in Scotland who went out to get the Xmas turkey two days before Xmas, and she still hasn’t managed to get home with it.
On a warmer note, we went over to Greenwich on the weekend. Our first stop was the Royal Observatory and the Meridian line. We refused to join the queue of about 100 people waiting for the opportunity to have their photo taken standing on the Meridian Line. We were witnessing the confirmation of the fact that the Brits love a good queue. The queue of note wasn’t a requirement, there were no ropes, painted lines or officials checking tickets, this was a queue formed purely through the wanton desire to form a polite line. No one pushing, no one shoving, just the slow shuffle of feet towards the front. After all they have been well practiced at it, they have been doing it since 1837, when they coined the term. In their quest for politeness they managed to totally ignore the timeball which dropped no more than a few meters from where they were all standing.
After doing a quick tour of the observatory museum (full of clocks, telescopes and stories of shipping disasters) we decided to head to the Maritime museum down the hill. But since we were very cold and hungry we decided that a bit of food was in order As luck would have it, there was a food cart nearby called ‘the honest sausage’. We were keen to check the integrity of these particular sausages, so we headed over expecting something of note. Instead we found that sausages of the required high standing are particulary hard to find at this time of year. We were told that they wouldn’t have any hot food for at least 45 minutes. Makes you wonder exactly how long it takes to cook a sausage. So there we were at the ‘honest sausage’ with ‘not a sausage’.
Since food was a new priority, the Greenwich market was calling our names. Fantastic market, wonderful food, and a place that we would like to spend more time in. Like the Maritime Museum, we need to spend more time here, and come back another day.
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