This brought terror to the newsrooms throughout the land yesterday. The blizzard raced through terrifying reporters with nothing else to talk about and leaving acres of print space, TV and radio hours full of snow.
It is usually like this in the UK.
Certainly the weather was harsh in some areas, certainly Esmeralda the boiler would not work until I went to bed, certainly it was cold, below freezing! However we all know it will halt trains, stop buses, cause traffic accidents and last no more than 48 hours, which indeed it did, less probably.
However TV, radio and press were on hand to cover each and every snowflake, except mine I should point out, and fill those empty spaces happily.
Along with the stormy weather there were expected to be high tides surging down the coast along the North Sea. The low lying areas of Essex and Eat Anglia have suffered much over the years from such tides and the authorities, armed with police, fire and ambulances abundant, recommended evacuation for many people. A great many refused to budge, various reasons were given but in reality they know their neighbours canny be trusted and while the police were roaming the streets they feared break ins from locals more than high tides.
In the end the high tides were not as high as feared, damage was minimal, no lives lost, everyone went home happy. Well apart from those now complaining the police overreacted, much money wasted and such warnings were not required. I suspect these are the same people who are first to claim the police/fire/ambulance/authorities did nothing and now look! It was ever thus.
Very true that the police overreact all too often these days but if you ran the service how would you run such emergencies? Good luck trying.
Cold in Sainsburys car park on Saturday morning, much colder two hours later when that snow blew in at 50 miles an hour. I of course was waiting for Esmeralda to start up! In fact I have just switched her on again and almost immediately she has failed. Typical! Fiddling with the thermostat keeps me warm mind.
These Saturdays are strange when there is no football. Scottish Football closes down for three weeks in January to give players a break and avoid bad weather, bad weather which we all know is worse in February and March! However it leaves a gap in the day. English football may have its points but it is not worth getting stressed over. Roll on the restart up north I say.
I heard one or two strange things regarding football. One was the supposed comment by a commentator that Totenham Hotspur footballers were badly paid! Now in football terms this may be true but earning £40,000 to around £100,000 a week before tax dodging is not bad in the minds of the local factory worker, the shop assistant or the man struggling to keep his business afloat with Brexit scaring him. Sometimes footballers are strange.
Another one is the condemnation of one such footballer probably at the higher end of the pay scale, more £200,000 than £20 a week, and the condemnation is his desire to move to another club for 'big money.' He wants away so he can earn proper big money and other players (who have done similar) are claiming 'That never happened in my day," liars one and all!
Tomorrow we have rain...
8 comments:
When they evacuated 'at risk' areas here before the hurricane people insisted that the local ne'er do wells were evacuated first and the police obliged.
I suppose that can't happen in the U.K. as said ne'er do wells would be 'offended'...
In the USA the police nor the emergency worker can do it correct. They are damn if they do and damn if they don't. They cannot win. In Nashville when we had that little snow, there were 548 car accidents in one day. It is not that southern cannot drive in snow we just do not have the snow removal equipment that northern areas have. Not cost efficient. I am off to watch American football and hope Prince will build a little fire. Peace
beautiful
Oops! That didn't go as planned!!
Fly, What a good idea. The white middle class liberal would however object.
Lady, Snow should be banned!
Suza, Thanks
Lee, Nothing unusual in that!
As the UK doesn't get bad weather on a regular basis it always catches us out no matter how much warning we get. But on the whole I think I prefer it this way. I lived on the East Coast in 1953 and can only just remember the floods in Lincolnshire.
Dave, 1953 was bad around Essex, many died. It is better to be prepared than do nothing I say.
I always marvel how "Arctic Britain" can turn so quickly into "Hotter than the Sahara Britain" without me actually noticing much difference!
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