18 December 2009 (Friday) - Snow

The view from my front door was so beautiful this morning. It only took a couple of minutes to pull the snow off of my car, and off I went. The car slipped a tiny bit as I drove over the snow in the gutter, and there were a couple of icy bits as I went down Beaver Road, but the main roads were eminently passable. The hospital car park was icy in places, but it wasn’t too bad. For several years I’ve never driven in the snow, always walking to work instead, but I shall drive in future.

Perhaps I’m just an old cynic, but I spent today at work in an “I told you so!!” mood. Many years ago when I first took on the responsibility of appointing new staff, I had only one criterion on which I would evaluate potential applicants. Taking as read that someone could do the job and wasn’t a total spanner, I would judge people on how close they lived to where they would be given a job. I never got to apply this criterion though. Apparently it’s discriminatory. The fact that its converse is discriminatory against people like me who live near their place of work is irrelevant. And so we struggled through the day at half-staff on account of the arctic-like conditions which prevented people travelling across the county.

I’m told there were nearly four inches of snow in Maidstone. Oh, I get so cross. One inch of snow is all that is needed for the country to grind to a halt. I see from Facebook that all my younger friends have had a day off school. Which is a shame because it’s clear from Facebook that many of them could do with more days at school.

I’m really hacked off with the snow. I had all sorts of plans for this weekend. The first (astronomy club) has been cancelled, and tomorrow’s trip to Surrey is looking decidedly iffy. And as for whether I will get to the beer festival is anyone’s guess.

Tonight was supposed to be the last astronomy club of the year. This time last year the astronomy club was beginning to eventually come together, and we had our last meeting in Stanhope. This year the club has moved to Woodchurch, tripled its membership, had all sorts of talks, staged a one-day event, and met Sir Patrick Moore. It’s really taken off – a shame tonight’s planned party had to be abandoned because of snow.

Meanwhile in lego-land something odd has been found. It’s certainly foxed “Ginge”, Gervais”, and all the gang. I think it’s something to do with the Bulgarian alien…