Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Amazing photos, Maria! Gosh..
Not that I saw any ducks, but take your word for it and hope that they are the same ducks that we talked about several months ago. Wonder where they have been in the meantime?

sorry Kerren I might not have included the duck pictures I took! They were certainly all settling on the same bit of ice - slightly downstream of the current breaking ice, close to the föri, no idea where they've been.... not much unfrozen water anywhere up here!

Here we go again!

It took my daughter 5 hours to drive the just over 20 miles home yesterday! I got off relatively lightly and only sat in it for 2 hours before giving up and going home yesterday morning.

Today there is a "skeleton" service on the trains and many roads are blocked.

Why does this country fall apart when there is a bit of snow? I don't remember it happening when I was young back in the dark ages but then, I suppose, people worked locally rather than commuting vast distances.

In 1963 I went to work,-- 3miles--- and returned on SKIs ! ---- beating the Bus by about an hour !

Yes I think we worked closer to home.
Dorset has seen very little "Dusting" up to now.

I had a trip to the UK planned for today to meet my son in London, who is travelling down from the North Of Sweden tomorrow. We were going to exchange presents and enjoy meeting, something we do infrequently as flights between Spain and Sweden are infrequent and not cheap.
Gatwick closed and no available cheap flights until next week, so I have had to reschedule, but in Sweden they were unaware of the problem and couldn't understand the flights being cancelled.
He flys into Heathrow and I have cancelled at Gatwick.
It's the first time in over 40 years flying that I have had a flight cancelled rather than just delayed, so it is not a bad average, but it does seem that anything unusual falling out of the sky (ash, snow etc), does seem to cause excessive havoc in the UK.
It always reminds me of when I was in Holland and the love of the Dutch for their southern neighbours.
When the first snow fell in Holland, the buses ran late for about the first half hour and then got back on schedule. They used to say that the Belgian buses schedules were still recovering from the previous years snow.

jhopgood wrote:I had a trip to the UK planned for today ....................................
Gatwick closed and no available cheap flights until next week, so I have had to reschedule, but in Sweden they were unaware of the problem and couldn't understand the flights being cancelled.
................... and I have cancelled at Gatwick.
It's the first time in over 40 years flying that I have had a flight cancelled rather than just delayed, so it is not a bad average, but it does seem that anything unusual falling out of the sky (ash, snow etc), does seem to cause excessive havoc in the UK.
.

England and Wales simply are not prepared. People don't have winter tyres (and I can't imagine the average person in winter jacking up the car just to change to winter tyres. Availability of chains is sporadic but interestingly my Swiss brother-in-law had to use chains (on winter tyres) for the first time ever when he was close to 60 years of age. Next, people don't have experience of driving on snow / ice and they don't normally have the opportunity of using skid pans (if they could be bothered). It was there that I learned that the make of car I was driving was notorious for NOT reacting reasonably to standrard anti-skid measures - the foreign manufacturers don't tell you things like that. In Russia (under the communist regime) they had a quick and easy way of keeping runways free of snow and ice: they simply used aircraft condemned jet engines to melt / blow the stuff away.
The railways are another case in point; our trains used to be able to cope with snow / ice because they were heavy and many were also equipped with tubes to feed sand onto the rails in front of driving wheels. The introduction of much lighter propulsion units has made them more susceptible to slipping.

Well, I had a Very Scary drive home from work tonight. I had to drive a mile or so on the A259 where there was nothing but open fields either side. No sign of gritting of the road surface. Even at 20 mph, and trying to keep to the tracks of the car in front of me, I managed to skid twice, for no apparent reason. And then I had to negotiate the overtaking of a cyclist who was also having problems (hope he got home OK!). A bit of a challenge. And I am glad I got indoors safely at the end of the journey, which at the end included two side roads which would never be gritted, and two footpaths where there is compacted ice from earlier, covered by the latest snow deposit.....And yes, I am dodgy on my feet and need a walking stick....

We have been "Festooned" by flights, over our area ------ Bournemouth Airport is open, so a lot of aitcradt are arriving here.
Bournemouth Airport, has been having a bit of a hard time, lately, after a multi-million update, since when, two airlines have withdrawn.

I suppose they will make some money out of this disaster, but it is bad for anyone who thought they were going to land nearer L0ndon !

Dorszet still has no snow to speak of --- !

Can anyone explain why Heathrow is open and appears not to have closed, Stansted is now open, yet Gatwick won't open, possibly, until tomorrow? I see that BAA run Heathrow and Stansted but not Gatwick.
Spoke to my sister, who lives in Maida Vale, and she appears to live in a microclimate with little or no snow. As a teacher, she had mixed feelings that her school was open, yet schools a mile away were closed.

Well, lucky old you. It's not deep but there is frozen ice underneath today's splattering of snow in West Sussex, and that makes travelling etc. lethal even if one is not registered disabled...

Don't know how to answer your message John but am really sorry that you have had to cancel/postpone your visit to the UK....

Contacted Margaret Wadman today to postpone tomorrow's meeting and her reply contained the following:

" I am stuck at home got as far as Tower Hill this morning and could get no further."

Probably just as well we are trying to reschedule for next week.

And does that mean you have to come next week, instead, John? Hope that is convenient to you! And the Carol Concert is the week after? I have not signed up to that this year, given uncertainties about timing of the house move.. Fingers Crossed it will still be before Christmas...
Kerren

We have only had about a centimetre and the roads are totally clear, but on pavements where the sun doesn't reach there is sheet ice and it is very treacherous underfoot. We are about 18 miles NW from Heathrow. Gatwick is South East of Heathrow in an area particularly badly hit. The snow has been very localised.

..meanwhile here in the frozen north, the airports are open but flights are being cancelled due to an air stewards strike!

Dad might be staying a little longer than expected, he will have 2 very happy grandchildren!

Temperatures have risen dramatically here and today we enjoyed a balmy minus 3 degrees C; at the start of the week it was minus 18!

... and for those of you who don't know where I am have a look! http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2010/n ... of-culture a bit further south than John's family but nice an North nevertheless.

HA ! --- having remarked on very little snow, in Dorszet ---- this morning woke up to a blanket of 6" snow, covering the road, the hedges, the lawns and, most importantly, the path to the Compost Heap !!! --- hence a trek to dispose of the receptacle of potato peelings etc. !

I have a pair of very ancient Skis (Wooden, but with steel edges, Kandahar Bindings !) which, although tempted, I shall not use ! --- the local Children are already having a wonderful time outside, and don't need anything else to laugh at !

There was a contribution, on the local Radio this morning, from a woman, who had visited her local Supermarket for a Newspaper and a bottle of Whiskey --- and said that she was established for the Weekend -------- I like that !