For those unaware of the panic in Britain, we've been increasingly concerned about gas and road salt. With only six days of gas supply left, Frozen Britain came perilously close to actually happening. Except of course the government have denied a problem exists. That's original.

Road salt though is also getting scarce, so surfaces have been prioritised with regard to need. Many roads and pavements no longer qualify, and everything gets 25% less scattered on top. In order to meet this shortage, and also to look like they were actually doing something in government except enjoying it, the government ordered foreign supplies and diverted some intended for Germany. But it could have been embarrasing. It seems the snow we'd been expecting from Siberia didn't turn up.

Luckily fate intervened and instead we got some more snow from the Atlantic. Phew. That was close. Someone could have gotten fired from their jobs.

Sunday's mini-blizzard lasted just about until I'd finished writing and posting my last blog entry, then stopped completely. It started again late last night, this time a proper old fashioned flakey snowfall, and immediately that odd silence you get in urban areas when the snow starts descended upon us. It's last orders in the pubs and no-one is wandering up and down the street in noisy singing contests.

Oh hang on, it stopped again. That was ten minutes worth of snow. Looks like that's being rationed out as well.

Can't See, Can't Think

Thing is though now the snow has been swept aside, crushed under foot and wheel, or even melted away here and there, the roads are now a uniform brown mushy colour and white lines invisible. So naturally those road users not acquainted with the layouts are making some very dodgy decisions.

One young lady pulled out of a car park from the one way access the wrong direction, and drove across a junction to reach her desired exit without bothering with little details like obeying the circular traffic flow. Now there's a lady who likes to be direct. That said, at least there wasn't any risk of collision, unlike the bicycle rider I saw from my vantage point in the library, who rode across oncoming traffic without a care in the world.

Added to that the natural desire of motorists to treat the road as their own personal property and not stop for anything other than a red light regardless of what the Highway Code says (and how many drivers in Britain ever read that after they passed their test?), you have a free for all. On the plus side, I have seen some very chivalrous behaviour from drivers. Apart from a BMW driver who clearly decided that pedestrians shouldn't cross the road without permission from him. Seeing me cross the slushy and slippery road ahead of him as he accelerated out of a car park, he sped forward and demanded I get out of his way with his horn.

Since I couldn't see a policeman, I made my displeasure known. Especially since he had to wait for traffic to get out onto the main road.