I took last Friday off through illness. In some respects, this was bad timing as Thursday night had seen a heavy snowfall across the south east (you may have heard about this) and Friday would definitely have been a ‘work from home’ day.
Because of the snow and living on a street with a pretty steep – and very slippery – hill, I must have heard just two cars all day. It reminded me of an all-too brief moment about 15 years ago when I was visiting the Canadian Rockies. Having driven up to a small and remote car park (where you could still pay by Visa or Mastercard, years before this was available to people even in central London) I walked off in search of glaciers or some other stunning view. I found myself on the edge of a dense forest, almost hip-deep in the most stunning snow-drifts, falling over every now and again as it was so thick. And then I stopped, having realised that I could hear absolutely nothing. No cars, lorries, trains, people, birds; not even trees rustling in the breeze.
It is a quite amazing feeling to listen and hear literally nothing and I will never forget that moment. In the UK, it is more than likely you will hear birds or the wind or a distant lorry, even in the middle of some of our larger forests.
Of course, snow does not always make for wonderment, beauty and tranquillity. Take the chaos that always affects the UK transport infrastructure. Although this year, just as big a topic has been the lack of gritting across the country. Brighton and Hove City Council have their own take on what’s happening locally on their website. They even have a handy PDF that describes the location of each gritting bin and its colour. The list explains why I haven’t seen a gritting bin, as we only seem to have one in our ward. I can’t really imagine walking ten minutes to said bin, filling up a bucket, then walking ten minutes back. About twenty times. Instead, my friendly neighbours wielded their spades, brooms and a pickaxe up and down the street until the ice was sufficiently clear to allow us to walk without breaking too many limbs. Looking at Mary Beard’s blog, it would seem the same is happening up and down the country.
I wonder how many pickaxes are needed along the East Coast of America right now?
Of course, the transport system, particularly the trains, don’t get off scot free from criticism. Oh, the joys of commuting in Britain during the winter. The Gatwick Express has been typically laughable over the past week. Although they deny it, to try and top their biggest joke (not selling sparkling water to standard fare passengers, as they reserve them to give away to first class passengers) they are skimping on heating and saying we must have suffered from a faulty heater. Every day. In every carriage. Every passenger sat on the train with coats, scarves and hats. Yep. Must be a fault. So they are reporting the ‘fault’ to their engineering team to investigate. How about just turning the heating up?
Still, taking a more positive slant, that first flurry of snow brings out the child in most people, along with smiles and laughter. Even the grottiest of towns suddenly take on a picturesque hue. Then there is the muffling of every day sounds that brings a certain calm to even the heart of London. We should always try and remember these points, even when our trains are 1 hour late, it’s taken us 6 ½ hours to get home, or we’ve just fallen over and broken our arm. I did say ‘try’ and remember.