Huh? What's going on? Why is the light through my curtains a light grey colour? Why is there a sound of someone struggling to drive a vehicle in the yard? Why did I just hear a metallic crunch as he failed utterly? Sorry, I just have to find out, so pull back the duvet (Aaargh! It's c-c-c-cold!) and look out the curtains to see....

No! It's not possible! Surely this cannot happen in Rainy Old Swindon! Yes, I'm afraid it has. We've had snow.

Blizzards On A Different Scale

Considering what I've been writing, the blizzards hitting the northeastern US are of a different order entirely. I was interested to hear a US journalist being interviewed on our news channel who said that this snow was unexpected at this time of year and the authorities weren't prepared for it.

On a smaller scale, that's entirely our problem too. How odd that a country so used to harder winters had no contigency plan at all to deal with unusual weather. For Britain, that's simply how we are, it's all about cost cutting, crossing fingers, and just plain forgetting the problem might happen at all. I had always thought the US was efficient and forward thinking about such things, that they always had their act together. Well, if it's any consolation, at least you cope with it better than we do. We've had a couple of millimetres overnight and the town is deathly quiet. So quiet you can hear cars and lorries slipping on the roads...

Whoops... There goes another one.