These boots were made for crunching
We’ve finally got snow, after weeks of false predictions about the white stuff. I’ve been clumping around in massive walking boots, not a pretty sight, since Christmas as I’m petrified of falling over, as since at the age of 10 I slipped and broke my wrist on a broom handle whilst sweeping the path outside my house. Still, I digress, so I haven’t set foot outside without my boots for over a month. I’ve been constantly checking the forecast and looking nervously skyward every few minutes each time I venture outside. When I went to London before Christmas, on another occasion snow had again been, wrongly forecast I nearly had a fit on Oxford Street when I walked into what appeared to be a blizzard, only to realise after walking a short way that the ‘blizzard’ had suddenly stopped – thankfully it was fake, being churned out by a machine, to presumably get people in the spirit of Christmas and to spend more money. Either that or to panic buy snow boots.
Every morning since the snow’s been forecast, I’ve forsaken my beloved Radio 4, and switched to Radio Sussex to listen avidly to updates on the weather. Whilst Radio Sussex do give great updates is it really necessary to give a blow by blow account of every snowflake that may or may not descend at any given moment, and to interview anyone and everyone, on their views about snow, like it’s the latest fashion accessory? The snow was and has been built up into a right old saga.
Two things about the snow are, one, as is the case every time we get snow, is that, it creates absolute havoc with the smooth running of everyday life, when it happens in England. Schools were closed at the rate of knots before even a single flake had fallen. When I spoke to relatives in Germany last night, they told me that nothing ever gets cancelled in Germany whatever the weather, their routine strides on relentlessly.
The second thing about the snow is what a magical atmosphere it can create at night. I walked home at around midnight twice this week, and it was crispy, crunchy, sparkling, with hardly a moving vehicle in sight, apart from a speeding ambulance that flashed at me because I’d been walking in the road as it was slightly less slippery. I could have been in another world, just the stars, and a blanket of snow and an almost muffled silence – bliss.
