Snow, school closures and other mild irritants

Well Happy New Year to my reader. As you can see from my recently installed cluster map I can now see where the literally very few readers are based. As some of you may be aware this septic isle is currently in the throes of a 'Siberian blast'. I am sure that Sun readers will soon start seeing it referred to as Britain's Siberian hell assuming that they haven't already had this joy.

This current bought of wintry weather, cunningly found in the middle of WINTER ( the clue is in the name) is very reminiscent of the sort of winters I remember in that golden age of the 1970s and 80s (please note mild sense of irony). When this happens most of the rest of Europe and North America watch on in a state of bewilderment wondering what we are complaining about.

This country has to start preparing itself better and learning to be adaptable since the Gulf Stream which gives us our weather system may not last forever. In a slightly hypocritical way, I won't generally drive in snowy conditions. The public transport round here is reasonably good and nowhere is so far away that I can't walk there. So with this in mind I yesterday set off to catch the school bus which didn't turn up. So I brought back my children along with one stray and rang the school.

This morning I rang the bus company before setting off to see if the service was running. I was told that not only was it not running but that the school was shut. I had already got a back up plan in place but thought it wise to ring the school to check facts since they have only actually shut once in living memory. My son and I made it to school that day only to be told it had shut. The Deputy Head assured me that school was open and that the bus company clearly didn't know what they were talking about. So I set off with the brood and proceeded to catch 2 buses. I arrived almost at exactly the same spot as 6 years ago and was told by a departing parent that the school was shut.

I understand that a decision has to be made but why does my school have to do it at such a late stage and why do they never tell any of the radio stations early. The High School was on the shut list at 7am this morning.

The BBC has just devoted a 45 minute News Special to the snow. Lots of people standing out by roads telling everybody who is at home that there is snow and not to be out in the middle of nowhere unless necessary. I am getting tired of this broadcasting to the most stupid member of society. Intelligent people can make their own decisions and also most of the stupid people aren't going to watch a 45 minute program about snow.

Rant over for now