Scribblings from the Mitchy Side

Well we're getting it good and proper today and no mistake. No way was I going to attempt to drive to Hertford - it wasn't the drive there that bothered me, it was the idea of getting home after a whole day of snow that worried me. I slithered over to the offices around the corner from me on foot and that was bad enough. Sadly, there were no spare PCs for me to use, they were all claimed already, so I wailed to Foghorn (who's working from home) and she's emailing me some docs I can work on here, so I don't have to use up any holiday. Or at least I have no intention of using any and there'll be a row if they try and make me. Just waiting for her to email the stuff so I can get on with it.

Saw at least one car sliding down the main road sideways walking back, which only made me really glad I was smart enough to not even attempt to drive today.

Hope my flist is staying warm and safe today! You be careful out there, it's nasty.

..ok that was the scariest driving conditions I've ever experienced (and I've driven back from Scotland during a snowstorm before now). Around 5.30 TooBrightTies warned me not to dawdle because the snow was really coming down. I hadn't even noticed :P I scampered to my car and found that I couldn't even get out of the car park, the tailback was that long.

Smart thing No.1 - I reparked and went back into work to use the bathroom. I am SO glad I did that!

On attempting to leave again, I had more luck, the traffic was starting to move. Turned out the reason for the long tailback was that people on the main road were having problems slithering up and down the slope and caution was definitely advised before leaving the side road. I slithered down the hill myself, bumped the curb a couple of times, but managed to wrangle the car safely down and onto the big main road, which wasn't too bad. The volume of traffic had done enough to keep it relatively clear. And then I got out onto the duel carriageway. Ewww! Dark, poor visibility and a road surface you couldn't trust an inch. I saw one poor chap who'd got stuck in the outside lane where it was so slick, he was unable to actually safely get back into the inside lane.

It wasn't the depth of the snow that was the problem, in fact where the snow had settled, it was safer. It was where it formed a slick on top of an already wet and slightly icy surface it was lethal.

I didn't get out of 3rd gear the entire trip home......(all of seven miles but it took me just over an hour and a half to do). I sensibly took the main road home, which was the long way around but safer than attempting the B road route. Once I hit the outskirts of WGC, I was a lot happier because I knew whatever happened from that point, I could get home, even if I had to walk. Conditions eased enough that I slithered into Morrisons and got some basics just in case the weather tomorrow is sufficiently vile I don't go out at all. And the cat needed cat food so I couldn't really skip it :) The big roundabout a stone's throw from where I live was a nightmare - watching the articulated lorry trying to slither round it was terrifying - the front wheels were turning, the back wheels were trying but the middle wheels were just spinning uselessly. I gave the lorry a wide berth and went around him when it was safe to do so. After that it was just a case of being patient and concentrating - the slope up to my road was nasty and not helped by the woman reversing down the slope on the other side of the road. No, I have NO IDEA why she was doing this, I just copied the excellent example of the other motorists nearby who were tucking themselves in out of the way until she'd gone past :P

The top of my road where cars are parked on either side was a bit hairy in that one skid there and my car would turn into a pinball *shudder* Fortunately, the road was pretty good compared to some of the other surfaces I'd been driving on so I was soon tucking my car into a parking space and scampering indoors.

Pippa the Peugeot was WONDERFUL and looked after me all the way home :)

And now I am going to fall like a ravenous wolf on the cheeseburgers thessalian has just made for me. Foooood! *OM NOM NOM*

....the Canadian housemate squees and scampers outside just so she can stand in it :)

So I went outside around 8pm to put out the rubbish. It was dark, cold, blowing hard and had just started to rain, but otherwise, it was just a typical miserable winter night.

And then thessalian came in looking like The Abominable Thesski and now my world looks like this:-



I will be sitting over here making o_0 faces now. I really thought we'd miss out on the bad weather, we usually do.

So tomorrow, I'm supposed to get visited by a BG engineer between 8am and 1pm, get over to Stevenage for the Work's Christmas do between 12.30pm and 2pm and then wait in from 2pm to 9.30pm for the delivery of the fridge freezer.

I'm thinking it might not all go according to plan :P

*goes back to boggling at the snow*

PS: Canadian born Thesskis squee a lot when it snows :)

So one of my fave shows is Private Practice, the Grey's Anatomy spin off, which stars (amongst others) Mr Idina Menzel, Taye Diggs. There's been speculation for ages that he might wangle a guest spot for his wife....and it's happened! Idina's got a multi-ep arc later this season! Squeeee!

The only TV spot that would be better would be if she got a guest spot on Cold Case and got interviewed by Tracie Thoms :D

In other news, it was StillWater's birthday today. We collaborated on cake so as not to overwhelm the office with edibles, but we've still got a ton of stuff. There was a carrot cake which we started and finished today, mini double chocolate muffins and choc chip muffins and treacle tarts. For tomorrow, we've got chocolate cake (that was my choice!), fruit cake, apple slices and many more muffins to chomp :D I just hope we can get into work, forecast is still a bit dodgy. To the point several people gave me birthday cards today in case no-one makes it in tomorrow :P

Talking of which, I really hope it doesn't snow too hard tonight - Rik and Carol are supposed to be coming down from Stockport tomorrow and if the snow stuffs the trains up (again) that's going to put the mockers on our meal out tomorrow night :( We're scheduled to eat here - I love Greek food and almost never eat it, so I hope tomorrow night doesn't get snowed out.

In sad news, we heard today that WatfordFan lost his father in the wee small hours of this morning. We knew he'd been poorly, I don't think anyone expected it to be fatal, but clearly it was more serious than we knew. Poor guy. We've signed a sympathy card and StillWaters is going to mail it to him.

I'm a dozy mousey this evening, I didn't sleep well last night. No reason, just had one of those nights when I couldn't doze off. Eh. Early night tonight for me, methinkest.

My morning so far:-

Wake up to alarm at 7.15, resist urge to burrow back under duvet.
Peer out of window to assess weather. There's snow but not too deep.
Get dressed
FogHorn calls and confirms she's taking daughter to school, will meet me at 8.30am.
Hop in car and slither carefully to garage - snow has eased considerably, it's mostly a very fine rain/sleet.
Drop car at garage, arrange for boss man to ring me.
Trudge home, noting the snow is getting heavier. And heavier. And deary me, it's rather heavy now.
About halfway home, get call from FogHorn - she's changed her mind about venturing out. I agree wholeheartedly and tell her I'm taking the day off as we'd discussed yesterday.
Make it home resembling something like an Abominable Dormouse.
Slurp tea, attempt to thaw out.
Boss chap at garage calls - I ask if they're willing to do the MoT but wait for payment until payday*. He goes to consult with boss.
Garage calls back - nope, no credit can be given. Sigh in disappointment but it was a long shot.
Enjoy remainder of tea.
Clamber back into wet coat and soggy scarf and start the thirty minute trudge back to the garage. The snow has stopped, but it's raining deceptively steadily.
Reclaim car, rebook MoT for payday.
Drive home.
Collapse on sofa with more tea, toast and hot water bottle.

At least I have the day off to recover :)

* - just heard that my cheque for the car tax bounced and can they have payment NOW please. Dammit. So I had to use the money I'd earmarked for the MoT and living expenses this month. Eh. I can eat next month :P **
** Seriously, it's ok, just annoying.

Goodness, while I was sleeping, Mother Nature decided that Hertfordshire had been neglected for far too long regarding snow and decided dump a rather large amount of the white stuff on us overnight. I've taken the afternoon off as well - I should try and get the car to the garage around the corner and get two new tyres. However, if it keeps snowing, I think I'll err on the side of safety and stay where I am. *looks out of window* Especially if it's snowing as hard as that! :P *coils around a hot water bottle, burrows into sofa* This rate, I won't be going in tomorrow, either :P

How lucky I have all this spare holiday to use :)

The Super Bowl - the Steelers won, dammit. It was a great game but I feel so bloody sorry for the Cards fans. Those last few minutes were heartbreaking for me, god knows how it was for them. Ah well, them's the joys of professional sports! At least I got to see Nadal beat Federer in another amazing match. And Liverpool beat Chelsea *cackles*.

( Five more questions for the meme! )

...I said in my last post that I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the last October snow in the South of England was the 1962/63 winter. I was 11 years out - the last time was in October 1974. However, the last London October snow was in...wait for it....1934. Wow. Hope all you Londoners feel special now ;)

I didn't do much today, just a quick run to Morrison's for milk and bread. Other than that, it's been a very quiet day. Now I'm watching Arsenal v. Spurs which promises to be anything but quiet so that should make up for it :D

So I went to the cinema this afternoon/evening with thalinoviel, to see "Burn After Reading". Great movie, if you're a Coen fan, which I generally am, full of the usual stupid people, farcical situations and howlers. Janey was late but fortunately for her, because the movie is quite short, they didn't start it until half an hour after the scheduled show time, so she only missed about five minutes :) And I got lucky when I bought the ice cream, the guy behind the counter went overboard with the scoop and my double scoop (very berry strawberry and coffee ice cream) was more like a quadruple scoop! Hee!

Anyway, we happily scampered out after the movie, idly plotting food and gossip, only to come to a screeching halt when we looked outside.

It was SNOWING!

Real, honest to goodness snow. Fat snow flakes that were settling well and judging from the pavements and parked cars, it had been snowing for a while, at least an hour. We looked at the roads, looked at the skies, looked at each other and agreed to take a rain check on the food and gossip. Neither of our cars are great for bad weather driving so we opted to scamper home while the roads were still busy and thus relatively clear of snow. "Relatively" being the key phrase in the sentence. The visibility was awful. I didn't go over 40 the entire trip.

*makes notes to text Janey and make sure she got home*

Anyway, have a couple of pics of the weather - I'm sorry they're large, I haven't downloaded any photo software yet. I'll try and shrink 'em later :)

(And btw, can I get a wtf? Snow in October? If they say on the news tonight it's the first time it's snowed in the South this early since the 1962/63 winter, I wouldn't be a bit surprised. I can't remember the last time we had snow before late November/early December.)

( Here be pictures )

I got a lovely surprise to see the snow when I scampered out of the flat this morning. I had no idea it was even forecast :) Lovely stuff too, the sort that squeaks as you pack it together for a snowball. Sadly, I had no-one to start an impromptu snowball fight with and had to make do with making the odd snowball out of the stuff I scraped off my car :)

Work had one major advantage today - hardly anyone was in. ShitStirrer had a day off, FogHorn was only in for half the day. She's been poorly for the past two days, poor thing, and today she could only work the morning because her son has come down with an abscessed tooth and wasn't at school. She brought him into the office and I have to say, for a six year old, he was remarkably well behaved. Particularly so when you could clearly see the bulge on his jaw that was the abscess, poor chap.

PartyGirl was out all afternoon, TooBrightTies was out for a meeting. So I had my end of the office to myself. Sadly I also had the boxes of envelopes from hell. Too boring to go into details but suffice to say - School Budget Shares go out to all schools. We have 530 schools so we do a lot of prep in advance, including labelling the envelopes. Every school receives multiple envelopes, 7 all told, 4 of which we have to label ourselves. *sighs* Do the maths, it's depressing! Still, I got a good chunk done and the temp in Battleship's office will do the bulk of it, I'll only have to help out when I'm not busy.

Good evening this evening - watched a great football match between Arsenal and Spurs, first leg of the league cup competition. Arsenal came back from 2-0 down to get a draw. Good game. And then I managed to get my new mortal character approved on LbN and I'm really pleased with the way the character sheet and background have come together. RP glee for me!

Now I really must go to bed. I've only managed one early night this week. *tsks at self*