Chaos

Since my last entry the World, or at least the UK, has been thrown into utter chaos. And the cause of such a breakdown in the fabric of the country? It snowed!

Now, if Britain was an equatorial country, experiencing only minor differences between the summer and winter weather patterns, then I could understand it. But we're not. We are a temperate country which has both summer and winter difference in temperature. In fact, this latest snowfall was forecast a week before it happened. But when it did finally fall, it seemed to come as a surprise to everyone who was in a position to actually prepare for it. Consequently, the roads, the railways, the airports and even the ports ground to a complete and utter halt.

Every year it’s the same. If the councils devoted as much time to preparing for the weather as the news channels do to covering the chaos that a small snow fall can cause, then this country would be as efficient as all the other European and North American countries that have snow falls.

However, it appears that it is not just winter that causes chaos. In the spring we experience floods (everything grinds to a halt and there are assurances that this will not happen again..........until next year), the summer, where if the temperatures are high half of the elderly population dies (there are assurances that this will not happen again..........until next year), the autumn where there is chaos because the leaves fall off the trees (everything grinds to a halt and there are assurances that this will not happen again..........until next year) and finally winter, where cold temperatures and snow cause chaos (everything grinds to a halt and there are assurances that this will not happen again..........until next year).

However, the white Christmas that everyone hoped for didn't materialise, as the weather changed from snow to rain, and almost all of the snow melted.

Christmas Day dawned early (all of the kids were staying) and after pressie opening m'Julie cooked our huge turkey to perfection. Unfortunately, Alec was working, so instead of being seven of us at dinner, there were only six, Alec eating later when he got back from work.

Surprisingly, by Boxing Day all the turkey was gone, which meant that the days of turkey curry, turkey salad etc were avoided.

We also managed to avoid joining the throng at the sales, although we did go to the cinema to see St Trinian's 2 on the day after Boxing Day, which was a suitably silly film to see. The nearest that we got to the sales was to try and find some speakers for Hannah's new iPod, as the ones that she had are for the previous generation of iPod and don't fit.

Unfortunately, now that it’s all over, we have the inevitable returns to work. Although I'm not back to work until next Monday, m'Julie is back at work tomorrow and the kids are back to their mother's on Thursday, returning to school on the same day that I return to work.

So New Year's Eve will be a quieter affair this year, with only me, m'Julie, her mum and Hannah, as Alec is working in one of the bars that he works in.

Oh well, another year over.