Those of you who have read this from the beginning will have noted my rather acerbic observations on heatwave levels. No doubt they are all a very distant memory now that the UK has been plunged into ‘Arctic conditions’ and is ‘as cold as the North Pole’ – you really can’t fault the tabloid journalists for being able to sensationalise a bit of snow.
I am delighted to say that I was far too young to remember the extent of the cold snap in the early 80s, but there is pictorial evidence to suggest I was there; that aside, I can’t recall the travel chaos, I certainly don’t remember the school being closed, or indeed anyone running out of salt.
It’s perhaps not surprising that the Brits are famed for their fascination with weather; if any sort of weather more severe than a light drizzle or a gentle summer breeze causes the infrastructure to collapse, I guess it pays to be fascinated by it.
Don’t misunderstand me, they are not alone in being incapable of dealing with certain weather conditions; here in Saudi for example, there was some immensely heavy rain recently, and it caused very severe flash flooding, largely due to the drainage, where it exists, being designed to deal with light rains only. But I think the UK is pretty unique in not being able to deal with ANY weather conditions.
I also can’t help but smile about the irony of various world leaders leaving the world conference on global warming because of the threat of snow in their homelands.
Was delighted to see the schools managed to open up for the exams though – i guess the threat of being sued because little Johnny fell over in the playground was a lesser one than having to re-arrange the entire exam timetable. Tragic.
