10 inches of snow and London shuts down...

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As many of you round the world have probably heard (as no doubt the BBC have kept this particular weather update so close to home bubbling away for all to ‘ooh’ and ‘arrrrh’ at for as long as possible) England has been hit by a freak Russian snowstorm.


I tell you no lies; the last couple of days have been absolutely hilarious. One of my favourite comedians, Michael McIntyre I’m sure is having a field day working on new material after London received a healthy dollop of ten inches of powder white snow on Sunday night. Consequently this was too much for us fair-weathered Poms to handle and the city shut down.


Think I’m joking? I told you, I tell no lies. The public transport system decided to call it quits and packed up and went home. Not a single London bus. The airports thought, ‘nah bugger it, let’s shut all the run ways’ and as for National Rail… don’t get me started. The result? 95%!o(MISSING)f all working Londoners were blessed with being stranded in whatever part of the urban sprawl they happen to live in and were allowed 24 hours of unexpected freedom to cavort around in a winter wonderland.


Ditching the city’s uniform skinny jeans and heels or chinos and loafers, male and female Londonites alike dug out their ski gear. Out came (again, hand on heart) snowboard boots, alpine jackets embroidered with British Ski Team 1998 and of course the token day-glow florescent yellow one piece some joker thought they’d dig out the dressing-up box… all characters heading for the commons to experience the unusual sensation of not being sat at a desk and actually feeling alive. Hysterical.


(For those of you not aware, this is extremely similar to the first bursts of warm weather and rays of sunlight to break through our skies around the end of May- us Brits tend to get extremely carried away with any change of weather… strutting down Kensington High Street clad in flip flops, very short shorts and vests. Only to later return from our mildly warm experience laying out on Hyde Park with third degree sunburns and tasteful bikini strap marks. What a bloody bunch of wallies!)


Alas I digress… back to the blizzard- People just don’t know how to behave in these times… voices are raised, excitement pumps through every vein and barely anything else is talked about all day other than the weather. (Hello- we are English) “Oooh look it’s still snowing”… (It’s been snowing for 13 hours) “Do you think it’ll keep snowing all night? Do you think we’ll get tomorrow off work as well” (Hopeful. But unlikely) “Oooh isn’t it gorgeous”….. The endless stream of narrative as you pass by yummie mummies and their clans of mini snowman makers in the parks is amusing to say the least.


One particular woman fully clad in Russian hat and pom-pom moon boots clutched her tiny child in an Eskimo’s papoose and held her phone to her cheek speaking into it like it was a satellite device used in polar expeditions. She had a worried but excited tone in her voice and an almost nervous twitch as she kept looking back up to the falling flakes “Yes okay darling. Okay…” she shouted down the line “I’ll let you know an update when I can. It’s just all so crazy out here… Yes it’s just astounding darling astounding. Do you think it’ll keep falling all night?....”


Here are a few pics from my delicious day off… long may the blizzard continue!

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