Family Affairs

Bloody hell, aren’t we rubbish in the snow? People slipping all over the place and stuck at home refusing to leave the house and schools closed and hardly any salt left and gas supplies dwindling and all sports cancelled and business suffering and hospitals and social services over-stretched and flights cancelled.

I watched several people pouring hot water over their drives this morning – I thought you weren’t supposed to do that? Thought it made things even more slippery. My car got stuck yesterday as I was trying to park. The wheels just wouldn’t grip. So I marched off to get a spade and err…some cat litter (I can’t remember who told me that it works just as well as salt – probably one of my children having a laugh). Luckily, I didn’t have to be the mad woman who was spotted throwing cat litter around and about the streets as a lovely neighbour came to the rescue with her son and helped me back my car in – this was once we’d established that she wasn’t pushing me out of my house. Do I need snow wheels? Do I need a candle and matches in my car and if so why? As a result of not daring to move my car again I walked my daughter to school this morning who was practically crying – a) because she thought I was the meanest mother in the world to be making her go to school when all her friends were staying at home and b) because she was bloody freezing.

With more snow predicted we really are going to have to get a grip. We need to get out there and be a little more community spirited. There are old ladies virtually having to slide down our very steep road (well, me actually) – the pavements are like slippery glass and there is nobody out there scraping anything but their own postage stamp of space. It’s not very impressive. I’d go and be useful, but my daughter has just come back with a frozen solid block of gym stuff. Literally, her PE kit plus socks and shoes are frozen into one lump. I have just managed to pick off the mouth guard and it’s left a frozen teeth mark in her shorts – unbelievable.

I’ve emailed my Canadian cousins who spend half their life having to deal with frozen nostrils, in an effort to get a definitive list of things to do in a blizzard. I’ll let you know when I get it.