What would you do with a Snow Day?

Yesterday, London was hit by the worst snowfall for 18 years and came to a complete standstill. £48 million ($69 million) was lost in revenues as offices shut. Many employees couldn’t get to work or had to stay home with their children because all the schools closed. The entire bus network was closed down as even though they did grit the main roads, they didn’t grit any side roads so the busses couldn’t get out of the depots and slipped down the side streets. The tube network was brought to a standstill with only two lines running, the rest were mostly suspended or severely delayed. So no bus, limited tube and if you thought about driving you must have been crazy, if your car wasn’t snowed in the un-gritted roads were treacherous, you couldn’t get anywhere, even the airports shut with one plane even sliding off the runway. Most people saw it as a disaster however I have to admit I really don’t think it was.

Being forced not to work meant people had to slow down and live a little. Anywhere there was a hill people who never usually interact were sledging or even skiing down it on whatever they could find. The parks were full of people!

I heard of Brizillian & African tourists seeing snow for the first time. If you were trying to travel and were sitting for ages because you were slowed down you had the time for pleasantries or even chit chat, suddenly London became a very friendly place. Many workaholics were defeated as even though most of them could work from home when they looked out the window and saw the world having fun they put away the laptop and went out to live their lives. It was so bad the Mayor came on TV asking us to not use the day for a mass skive that we should all try and go to work. Try telling that to the mother that doesn’t know her baby anymore as it is always with the nanny, or the father who is having a difficult time with his son and now has time to build a snowman with him in the backyard. What would you give for an extra day off? For those that didn’t venture out this was a day to catch up on some things you wanted to do at home, to read that book they had been planning to read for ages, to paint the hall that has had the paint sitting there for months now or just catch up on some much needed rest. If you were suddenly forced to stay at home for the day what would you do? Perhaps there will be a baby boom around November time. Hahaha!

Me – well I didn’t get a chance to skive off but I still enjoyed my day.
Id left my gloves around at Mr Special’s on Sunday and this wasn’t the day to not have gloves however when I got up I didn’t watch any news or TV, I just looked outside, wrapped up warm and got my wellies on and went out to work.

I decided to slow walk to the station and enjoy the snow it was beautiful, kept having to alternate the hand that was holding the umbrella so that my hands didn’t freeze but I just took my time enjoying the stillness and the softness of the morning. Just as well I walked, can you imagine if I had waited for the bus? When I got to the station my tube line was running but with delays.

At work my boss was impressed to see me (brownie points) he had managed to get in and he lives way outside London so he figured most people should be in. They weren’t!

Then something sweet happened at around 11.30 Mr Special arrived with the gloves, he didn’t want me to get cold so dropped them off at my work. I have to say that my workplace is really out of his way and must have taken him ages with the tubes the way they were but he thought of me that made my day! He had been sent home from work (lucky man) as the weather was getting worse and he seemed quite concerned about how I would get home.

When he left he said ‘leave early baby, and any problems come straight to mine ok?’ He is a darling isn’t he?

I left work slightly early had no problems getting home. The snow was worse on the way back and having to walk wasn’t great so when I got home in the warm I thought about all the people who are suffering because of the economy at the moment and are having to choose weather to heat or eat in their homes. I prayed that they and the homeless were safe and warm.

When I looked outside over my balcony and saw the row of snowmen on the grass. It made me smile.

So that question again, if you were forced to stay home for the day and not work, what would you do with it?

ps - there is more bad weather to come...watch this space..