Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Talking of postmen in this weather, we haven't had a postal delivery at all in this current snowfall.

Apparently, it's deemed too unsafe as the paths haven't been gritted on our estate. 'Elf and Insanity' strikes again !

Strange, how I managed to make it into Dorking town yesterday lunchtime !

If any politician mentions global warming and carbon footprints in the forth-coming general election, I will PERSONALLY, rip his/her head from his/her shoulders and stuff it where the sun don't shine !

mvgrogan wrote:WE ARE HOME!

No delays with flights, no problems with trains, even managed to phone a cab to meet us at the station and he drove up onto the platform to load up!!! Good job, too as we had SO MUCH luggage (more than when I moved over I think ) Got home at 0140 Finnish time - which translates to 12 hours of travelling. The kids coped remarkably well and we all slept like logs ... now pottering, unpacking, doing laundry and cleaning the fridge (pong!) while Jarmo digs out the car so he can go shopping and fill it up!

Minus 19 at Helsinki airport and it looked like less snow than Gatwick. Bit more snow at home (Turku), currently minus 8, but it was minus 14 when we got up about 11 ish.

Only real difference between Finnish & British is that this snow is much drier than yours... Oh, and ALL the roads are cleared & gritted therefore accessible & usable!!

Glad your journey was ok after all Maria. What a difference it would make if all the roads were gritted here. We lift just off quite a busy side road on which there is a clinic and walk-in (or slide-in if you consider the state of the icy road!) health centre - road totally ungritted.

we haven't had proper postal deliveries, either, though he did come on foot yesterday. Unfortunately I am awaiting a prescription which was posted First Class from the Surgery a couple of miles away on Tuesday and it has not yet arrived. I phoned the Surgery yesterday (Friday) asking for an emergency replacement because two of the (five) drugs run out on Monday,but was told it was the weather and I should be patient. If it has not come on Monday, I should phone again. Unfortunately, while I worked at home Weds-Friday, I simply HAVE to try to make the effort to get there for Monday and will be leaving long before the post arrives and won't get home until long after the surgery closes. If I don't contribute here for a while, you will know why!

I have been catching up on a backlog of newspapers and have just read an article in the Times (probably left behind by Jarmo) which suggests that it was the dry 'fluffy' kind of snow that was responsible for Eurotrain's problems in the Channel Tunnel. So presumably 'dry' snow has its disadvantages too, in spite of being generally easier to live with! Also I have made a mental note, as suggested elsewhere on this forum, to go and put out food for the birds. I had been wondering what to do with our surplus fruit etc - two compost bins are filling a lot faster than they are rotting. I have a huge bag of wild bird seed too which I had forgotten to do anything with! I hung some a while ago in an inverted lemonade bottle, but first time the squirrels beat the birds to it, and next time it somehow filled with water which then froze!

mvgrogan wrote:Oh, and ALL the roads are cleared & gritted therefore accessible & usable!!

Good to see you got home safely and that the children were OK.
Why is it that Britain is soooooooo incapable?

I had a French neighbour whom lives by a small country lane complaining a winter or two back. She had been woken by an unearthly racket outside at 8.30 am.
Investigation found that there had been a heavy and unexpected snowfall during that night, the equivalent of A roads had been cleared and then the B roads. Eventually, after clearing all those they got round to sending the snowploughs up the side lanes and it was one of those which woke her at 8.30am.

We are in the south of France, at 400 metres which is no height. Snow is not unknown but the real problems are wind (toppled trees) and heavy winter rains.

Here even side streets in towns are left untreated in any way.

J.R. wrote:Talking of postmen in this weather, we haven't had a postal delivery at all in this current snowfall.

Apparently, it's deemed too unsafe as the paths haven't been gritted on our estate. 'Elf and Insanity' strikes again !

Strange, how I managed to make it into Dorking town yesterday lunchtime !

If any politician mentions global warming and carbon footprints in the forth-coming general election, I will PERSONALLY, rip his/her head from his/her shoulders and stuff it where the sun don't shine !

May I come and watch?

We had a post delivery this morning, the first since Monday. Circulars and begging letters!

sejintenej wrote:

mvgrogan wrote:Oh, and ALL the roads are cleared & gritted therefore accessible & usable!!

Good to see you got home safely and that the children were OK.
Why is it that Britain is soooooooo incapable?

In defense of the British system: I have live in places in N. America (NE, Saskatchewan) where snow is inevitable, and places (N. Carolina, Louisiana) where it is rare. The former always dealt with snow and ice in a timely and professional manner while the latter always were unprepared. It comes down to cost:benefit. How much are you willing to pay every year for an event(s) that may or may not happen? Where I live it is clearly worthwhile investing in the supplies and equipment on an on-going basis: in the UK, probably not. So, those rare years when you get a significant snowfall, there is not enough material on-hand to deal with it. I doubt if many people would want to pay the additional taxes to cover those rare events since most years it would all go to waste.

J.R. wrote:Talking of postmen in this weather, we haven't had a postal delivery at all in this current snowfall.

Apparently, it's deemed too unsafe as the paths haven't been gritted on our estate. 'Elf and Insanity' strikes again !

A little story particularly for JR.

I used to work with a particularly unintelligent woman (so thick she didn't even realise that she was thick) who was married to a South Australian Police Officer. One day she commented that she hoped that the forecast rain eventuated by that evening, as this would mean that hubby didn't have to man a booze bus. ????????????????????????

Apparently planned booze buses are cancelled if it rains because the officers would get wet.

Perhaps doctors, firemen, lifeboatmen, and others should adopt the same policy?

kerrensimmonds wrote:we haven't had proper postal deliveries, either, though he did come on foot yesterday. Unfortunately I am awaiting a prescription which was posted First Class from the Surgery a couple of miles away on Tuesday and it has not yet arrived. I phoned the Surgery yesterday (Friday) asking for an emergency replacement because two of the (five) drugs run out on Monday,but was told it was the weather and I should be patient. If it has not come on Monday, I should phone again. Unfortunately, while I worked at home Weds-Friday, I simply HAVE to try to make the effort to get there for Monday and will be leaving long before the post arrives and won't get home until long after the surgery closes. If I don't contribute here for a while, you will know why!

Kerren, do you have your prescriptions dispensed regularly at a pharmacy? They may be able to help you out if the prescription doesn't arrive in time.

It is not just us

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8449906.stm

The number of road accidents/deaths is a bit of a nonsense as it does not tell you how many there are when the weather is good.

Similarly in this country we are told about road accidents/deaths attributable to the bad weather, but as many people die or are seriously injured on British roads every day perhaps there are actually fewer at the moment because people are driving more slowly/carefully and /or not going out at all at the moment.

Minor/less seriuos car accidents seem to be higher. One of my brother-in-laws and my cousin both had accidents during the last few days. When the driver delivered a courtesy car to my brother-in-law on friday he said this past week is the busiest he's ever known.

Pictures of MY back garden!!







well maybe not quite MY BACK GARDEN.... but this one is........




and this..

The snow has started to thaw up here in Northumberland, first time since before Christmas.

What's wrong with this picture?

Clue: ask yourself who is inside in the warm with the camera while I am outside in the cold???

(though to be fair, it is my car.......)

!!!!!