Last Saturday (I wrote this a week ago so this wasn't actually last Saturday...) a beautiful blanket of snow fell upon jolly old England. This, a regular winter occurance, has brought a county which once ruled most of the world, to its very, very cold knees.
To be fair, London did get quite the amount of this beautiful gift from the heavens, as did Manchester and further north near Alan and Jean as did Scotland etc. On the other hand, the city I happily call home received a whopping 1 cm. Whoop-de-do. Basically things just look prettier, the snow is doing a great job of hiding some uglier parts all cities have. It is also helping to keep me in the holiday spirits when I am sadly away from home during Christmas. So while I am apprechiative of this 'makeover' Birmingham has so graciously received no one else seems to feel the same way. 'Birmingham-ites' are respondig to the light dusting of snow as If it is a plague of biblical proportions.
After the initial 5mm my students were not allowed outisde for playtime (recess) as it was clearly far too dangerous for them to be outside. The school itself cancelled extracurricular activities due to the unbearable conditions (it wasn't even snowing). When the odd flake began to slowly drift from the heavens I was told to leave immediately after school so that I wouldn't be snowed into the school. How I do not burst out laughing in response is a miracle in itself.
The school children do not wear winter boots, they just continue wearing their black dress shoes with the exception of the odd child who sports a pair of rubber boots. A note to the parents of those children: snow is not the same as rain. While rubber boots will keep your childs feet dry they also may get hypothermia.
For a county that experiences varying versions of winter annually, one would expect that at least the cities/muncipalities would be prepared to battle old man winter. But no, the English seem to believe that if they deny the existence of winter that it will go away. There are no snow-ploughs. While they sand/grit the roads I have yet to see any salt or anything useful to help eliminate the build up of ice on the road and sidewalks. This combination of ice and snow makes every step out of my house an embarassing adventure.
I will end this blog with a quote from a British teacher: "My car window wouldn't go down this morning, it was like it was glued up!" Me: "Ya, it's just frozen. Don't worry the 'glue' will melt."
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