It came from somewhere else...
Winter arrives with a soft patter of snowflakes which hit the south of the country first thereby ensuring lots of rolling news coverage of the sensational discovery that it snows in winter.
The weather in the UK mostly comes in from the west off the Atlantic and I knew something was up the other day when the clouds were coming in from the East. Edinburgh, though, as ever missed the bulk of the intial snow with a light covering followed by a hard freeze – our usual pattern. But that’s OK – we know it’s going to happen and we know that usually the main winter weather comes in January and February.
Friday saw an office Christmas lunch and party. I was with my old colleagues in the team I worked with until earlier this year and it was good to see them again. The meal itself was mediocre but the company more than made up for that. I ended up spending longer in the pub afterwards than I had originally intended and I think that was because, not being part of that team any longer, the relationship had changed and was a bit more relaxed (for me at least).
I only have a couple more days to go at work before holidays and this year I feel that I really need them. I haven’t had a real break since we were in Orkney and Shetland in the summer and I really feel in need of one. Traditionally the winter solstice marked the shortest day, after which the light began to return and, without going all pagan on anyone, there is an element of that in christmas holidays this year – some recharging of the batterys and loosening of the tension in the shoulders.
Although there were lots of arguments about when the millenium actually was marked (and remember all that fuss about the bug?) it was ten years ago that we were all getting ready to welcome in the year 2000. Quite aside from wondering where ten years have gone, I have been blogging for most of the decade and kept an occasional journal for myself before that. So I may also, while I’m off, attempt a review of my decade and possibly even try a quick reminiscence of my favoutrite music released during it – the majority of which will never have been so vulgar as to trouble the popular music charts of course, with the exception of Goldfrapp to whom I am listening as I type.
It’s not the snow in Scotland – that is normal weather – it is the snow in and around London which makes it a major news event.
Hi Ian;
So, the collective media have rediscovered snow in Scotland. It’s amazing how a bit of weather can push real news to the margins of our collective consciousness.
Here today, all I can find on the “news channels” is pictures of what looks to me like quite an ordinary snowfall. However, since it is falling on the centre of the universe, (i.e.: the American east coast), we have to listen to overly excited yankee newscasters carry on about how “unprecedented” it is. Somehow, they seem to have forgotten that the area spent 10,000 years buried under a mile thick glacier in recent geological history.
It looks like a white Christmas will be pretty much guaranteed here in Ottawa. There are nearly two feet of snow on the ground already and the average daily high temp is likely to be well enough below freezing to keep it there.
Alex