My Day

[High6]

13 minutes ago, TheQ said:

958 trains cancelled, no trains from Norwich to Sheringham, Gt Yarmouth, Lowestoft,

Trains from Kings Lynn to Kings Cross cancelled,

Leading to increased traffic on the roads, many of which are now at a stand still. I'm Glad I came in at 06:00 with few problems

40 Schools closed.

 

and we have.... about an inch and a half of snow...

 

Our garden thermometer says -10C, but the chaps suction dredging Hickling staithe broke the ice and have been out for hours paddling around the dredger in their little attendant punt. They seem to work every daylight hour regardless of the weather - respect!

[Happy]

Three inches of snow here at the moment so starting to pack for our forthcoming 15 night Canaries cruise with

Martin and Carole (Little Sprite).

Need to get some heat in these old bones!

[Islander]

Thorpe river green from our boat.

[grendel]

we had about 5 inches on the M2 between Faversham and Sittingbourne, lorries were stuck on the hills, about 2 hours delays getting to work, we didnt really start moving until a snowplough came through and got the second hill passable to traffic, about 3" of the snow fell while I was sitting in the queue.

[Islander]

Cannot believe how many cars coming past here will snow all over the bonnet.

and

whats wrong with the Wherry Hotel webcam. All I get is a night scene?

Colin

[grendel]

well I cleared the roof of my car and bonnet before I left, and arrived at work with an inch of the white stuff up top

[grendel]

2 minutes ago, Islander said:

whats wrong with the Wherry Hotel webcam. All I get is a night scene?

camera blocked by snow?

[Islander]

Seems to be in a time warp! I tried last night and it was giving a daylight image. When trying to control it nothing seemed to respond and it said I had unlimited use.

Not the end of the world, I'll have to watch Barnes instead.

Colin

[LizG]

It wasn't just 'My Day' but 'My Extended Weekend' with a build up of several months.

First it involved my youngest daughter

Second it involved making a wedding cake - requiring a specific theme and a lot of sleepless nights!

Then driving down to Faversham - collecting and collating family and friends on the way from many different parts of the country, not just Norfolk. (The Grooms family do come from Kent but it was the venue that was the key reason)

We were so lucky with the weather despite it being very cold, it was sunny throughout and thankfully everyone got home by yesterday which also involved a trip to Norwich and to Horning so I could check on WR and getting back to Hertfordshire before the weather set in (no trains running from Ware to London so daughter 2 can't get to work!)

So after an exhausting weekend, life is now back to normal for several months.

I should add that the Shepherd Neame Old Brewery Store was a fantastic venue for a wedding if you would something a bit quirky and different.  The whole event went very smoothly and everyone had an excellent time.  The receipt for the bar tab was the height of my eldest daughter!! Also on the Friday afternoon we went on a Brewery Tour which was very interesting!!

I must say that the boat covers on the old Thames Barges by the quay were quite impressive - more like a greenhouse cloche so that not only did it cover the boat but they could work underneath as well! Unfortunately it was low tide!

Here are some photos of the weekend..........including the cake! Fruit; Red Velvet and Vanilla Sponge!

[Malanka]

To get us back on topic:

Alert: Total smuggness warning...............

I should be working but there are workmen types all up and down my corridor hammering, sanding, banging, drilling, you name it, all in the name of "new toilets". We even have the CEO / my boss coming over from San Francisco today to open the toilets tomorrow ( I kid you not). We will have wine and eats (an Apero for those who like all things Swiss) So my brain is being assaulted by so many sounds I can't concentrate and so decided to add my two pennies to my day today.

Awoke to bright sunshine, streaming through the shutters which we close at night in the winter and close during the daytime in the summer. A slight dusting of the white stuff maybe two or three cm all over the car and road and so on, the little flakes were still drifting down as I looked down out of the landing window assessing what minus nine looked like this morning. No clouds but snow, but hey this is the Berna Oberland so who cares it's Switzerland right? Not as cold as it has been, we had minus 16 earlier in the winter but no worries it's lovely and cosy warm in our house. Had tea and toast for breakfast (Alpen Bröt) which is yummy and very healthy. Packed lappy into bag and headed for the car, doors opened easily, swept snow off car and started the engine. Bitterly cold breeze blowing but its ok I'm a northern boy and was borne to weather like this. After a few minutes warming my bottom with the heated seat I decided to set off to work, no snowmaggeddon headlines in the papers, no schools closed because the little darlings may get wet or god forbid cold!  Nobody not making the effort to get to work at all, in fact this never happens here, they just get on with it. Funnily enough the trains work, the buses work and the planes work too. Our snow tyre equiped car is stable, steady and fully capable of coping with whatever weather we get given. Try them they are worth the expense even in the wet too.  On my way in (22km by road) I found my mind wandering and wondering if Köln Bonn Airport (Konrad Adenauer Airport if you're old enough) was still open for business, I had no reason to think not as they bought at bargain prices the snow clearing equipment sold off a few years ago by  Heathrow Airport due to the fact that some twonk in the Moron office / Hadley centre / CRU said cold weather and snow in particular was a "thing of the past", and children would "soon" grow up not knowing what snow is anymore. I wondered if this useful idiot was still employed by said agencies. I think probably yes but I don't really care. He made these remarks (and yes he has a Phd) on March 20th 2000 and since  this leading "expert" made his forecast in the year 2000, the Northern Hemisphere has had five of it's six snowiest winters on record. Smug in the knowledge that my roads will be cleared and my trains will run on time, I head off to my office and the day ahead.

These headlines never used to happen in the sixties, seventies or the eighties, so what has happened? Why has the stoic, "calm down and carry on" spirit been replaced by snowmaggeddon, fear of everything weather related, heat , flood , cold, and the desire to hide from what the ever changing nature of the weather has been handing us for hundreds of years. I know its climbrexchangeit. There I have invented a new bogey word.....

See you all soon at the May meet up, or sooner if you're out and about over Easter. Bring out your winter woolly warms it may or may not be cold, warm, wet, dry, sunny cloudy, windy, windless, or any combination. But who cares we are BRITISH and we can cope with anything, or so someone once said.

Someone is now sanding ...GGGrrrrrrrr Sounds like a million angry wasps.

 

M

[JanetAnne]

We used to be able to cope with anything. Now elf and safety stops us. 

[Gracie]

Wow Liz, that cake looks amazing, so clever and well done, I could never do anything like that, I burn peas

Your Daughter looks beautiful by the way

Grace

[grendel]

Grace, in the past I have burnt spaghetti.

[Bound2Please]

I can go one better than Grendel I once burnt the bottom out of a cast aluminum saucepan.

[grendel]

I bet it was melting lead for fishing weights?

[Maxwellian]

Wish I had a £1 for the number of times I have walked or driven past that Brewery in Faversham. The smell when they were adding the Hops, especially with the other one across the road that is now closed. 

[Guest]

At Dubai Boat Show:

Don't think this would be very suitable for The Broads. 

 

 

[SteveO]

As I write this, looking out over a scant 2 inches of snow, I reflect with annoyance at the fact that the "Smart Motorway Awareness Course" (Kerchinggg!!!! ) courtesty of Kent County Council. that I was supposed to attend this afternoon was already cancelled even before a flake of the white stuff had been seen in the sky. However, it seems that the “Beast from the East” should have been renamed the “Least from the East” at least for today.

No doubt the many thousands of employees of KCC had decided that they would prefer a day with their kids, sledging on the North Downs to a day's desk-polishing in the office. No-doubt this decision was backed by a multi-page "Risk Assessment", which piles “worst-case” scenario on top of “worst-case” scenario regardless of likelihood and adopts a “zero tolerance” approach to risk. So much of our society is governed by this mentality that we are beaten before we start.

I saw on the news that the M20 motorway was a car and lorry park this morning. Our little patch of bad weather was forecast well in advance and should be well within the capacity of Kent's gritters and snow ploughs to deal with. What the **** is going on and how would we cope if there was a patch of really seriously bad weather?

Grrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[Bound2Please]

55 minutes ago, grendel said:

I bet it was melting lead for fishing weights?

No actually quite close melting zinc, and left the oxy in one place to long

[Malanka]

He he smuggymcsmugface here. We even have snow ploughs and gritting machines for the pavements. Its quite illuminating how having now lived in four countires, how it is self evident that the UK has swallowed hook line and sinker the elf and safety jobsworth," I'll be damned if I cant find a reason to stop you enjoying yourself" culture. The other countries simply went "Stuff that B*ll"cks that's simply ridiculous," and have simply carried on as normal, you know, like we used to do.  

Our childrens school in Germany encouraged the kids to bring in their sleds to enjoy the snow slope in the school yard. They had organised snowball fights when it snowed, they stopped and banned it when it started to melt to avoid ice balls. But the atttitude was what can we do to enjoy the weather not OMG its snow and its cold and wet, lets keep them indoors. By the way Germany is the most litigious country per 1000 capita in the world, even more so than the USA.

We had to have compulsory child insurance , compulsory window insurance, compulsory bike insurance. The best bit was all of those were in household policies and cost peanuts. In CH we have legal protection insurance which pays legal bills if I have to take someone to court....  

 

Smuggymcsmuggson

[Polly]

Lovely bride Liz and genius cake!

[grendel]

2 hours ago, SteveO said:

As I write this, looking out over a scant 2 inches of snow, I reflect with annoyance at the fact that the "Smart Motorway Awareness Course" (Kerchinggg!!!! ) courtesty of Kent County Council. that I was supposed to attend this afternoon was already cancelled even before a flake of the white stuff had been seen in the sky. However, it seems that the “Beast from the East” should have been renamed the “Least from the East” at least for today.

No doubt the many thousands of employees of KCC had decided that they would prefer a day with their kids, sledging on the North Downs to a day's desk-polishing in the office. No-doubt this decision was backed by a multi-page "Risk Assessment", which piles “worst-case” scenario on top of “worst-case” scenario regardless of likelihood and adopts a “zero tolerance” approach to risk. So much of our society is governed by this mentality that we are beaten before we start.

I saw on the news that the M20 motorway was a car and lorry park this morning. Our little patch of bad weather was forecast well in advance and should be well within the capacity of Kent's gritters and snow ploughs to deal with. What the **** is going on and how would we cope if there was a patch of really seriously bad weather?

Grrrrrrrrrrrr

 

this morning at 6.00am 3" of snow managed to fall while we were waiting for the snowplough / gritter to get past us and clear the lorries that had blocked the hills on the m2, if the traffic had been able to keep moving, the road would have stayed clear.

[ExSurveyor]

The Kent Downs this morning.

[ExSurveyor]

And The Beast that got me there,  up snowy hill and down icy dale.

[vanessan]

3 hours ago, Maxwellian said:

Wish I had a £1 for the number of times I have walked or driven past that Brewery in Faversham. The smell when they were adding the Hops, especially with the other one across the road that is now closed. 

That one being Fremlins I guess?