England is in emergency state. Well, kind of. For the first time in the three years that I've been living in this country, the bad weather actually manifests itself in what Europeans normally refer to as snow. When English people say snow, they usually mean somewhat white stuff in a flakey or hale-like shape that falls from the sky. It usually is more a form of ice rain, hale stones, sleet or simply half-frozen British weather. But this time it´s different. It´s actually snowing!
And that means England is in emergency state. The media talks about "extreme weather", everything grinds to a halt, schools stay closed, inches turn into feet, people spend the entire day staring out of the window (watching the snow melt, I imagine, is about as exciting as watching paint dry), cyclists dismount and push their bikes, buses don't run, train lines are suspended—including the tube (does it snow underground?); drivers are advised to travel only if it´s absolutely necessary—its dangerous! Needless to say that planes get cancelled naturally because the snow apparently turns taxi ways into ski slopes, which also means that I am pretty god damn lucky not to have opted for the Berlin trip that was to depart today but also pretty god damn worried about my trip to Zurich on Wednesday, where I'm going to rely on car, train, tube, bus and plane. This is bound to be disastrous. Oh dear.
So let me share this blizzard—this monster of a bad weather condition—with you, as I caught it on camera, when it was sitting in our garden today, but be warned—it´s nasty:
I was looking forward to a talk by Clay Shirky tonight. As part of the Festival of Ideas he was to give a talk in Bristol about how the internet is transforming our social lives, which was a great opportunity to hear a great man speak. Unfortunately the event got cancelled due to the adverse weather conditions and Mr. Shirky didn't make it to Bristol.
Instead I spent some time on facebook, experiencing this said transformation in practice and changed my status message to "Paz joins the club of people commenting something about snow". And because I have nothing better to do, I'd like to share everybody else´s status messages with you. So here´s some social snow:
... Airpoint is missing windows, its snowing inside...pretty.
... is loving the snow!! :D.
... is SNOW!
... just opened the window and a billion snowflakes just flew in!
... loves the snow, but please don't cancel our flight!
... ♥ snow.
... loves the snow!
... is going to the park to play in the snow!
... is off to have a snowfight!!
... is happy to be back from London before it all went tits up!
... is off too Berlin and its snowing in Bristol Yeay!
... HATES snow.
... is still at her parents looking at the snow =].
... is snowless.
... is snow ♥ snow ♥ snow
... is snowed in and has a worse cold than yesterday. The situation is actually quite hilarious. I might miss my coach back to Bristol today because of the weather.
... overslept...bring on the snow!
... got up for work, but theres no work... just SNOW!!!!! ♥.
... is snow'd in ..in reading !
... THINKING SNOW, SNOW, SNOW!!!!!
... is happy the snow followed him back to southampton!!
... has been reunited with his wallet... and wants to go and play in the snow.
... it´s STILL snowing!
... snow!
... wants the snow to come back.
... YEY FRIKKING YEY! SNOOOOOOOOOOOOW!
... wonders why it´s snowing in Weston but not here :(.
... hope the snow sets :)
... Let it snow! Let it snow! meh i wanna go outside and play ha.... was shocked to see 15cm of snow at Heathrow this morning! Now looks like it´s followed me to Weston....
... you should never take a country seriously that grounds to a halt in inches of snow... pathetic..
... made it home! THANK YOU EL. Is feeling extremely ill and will spend the rest of the day (if not week) indoors. Snow is beautiful though.
... 6 ft, or rather 1 cm deep in snow... 5 - 10 cm my backside....
... its sunny outside OMG its sunny, fuck the snow im going to sunbathe...
... is Procrastinator extrodinaire!! Uni coursework or snow....mmmmmm?
... wants to live somewhere snowy :(
... has been dancing in the snow blizzard lol
... thinks everyone shud stop making comments about the snow! its not enough to slead or build a decent snow man ! FFS.
... Lives in London all her life and then it snows, properly and she´s in Hong Kong!!!
... is appreciating to the snowness but not the strandedness.
... just opened the window and a billion snowflakes just flew in!
... overslept...bring on the snow!
... so much snow in london!
... got up for work, but theres no work... just SNOW!!!!! ♥.
... is unhappy her flight to Berlin was canceled due to the snow in Bristol : (
Snow in England—it was actually a massive event! Even for people that weren't in the country when it happened. I hope things will be back to normal on Wednesday. I expect within three days they'll figure out how to run a country with a few flakes floating down from the sky—or am I wrong?
[...] to be a winter wonderland. And so most of the time the town looks a bit like Bristol when the extreme weather hit Britain this winter. But when it’s cloudy and rainy or wet and grey, it’s always a [...]
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