lol, oh to think in such black & white terms of bitter and sweet.
I had hoped you'd realise that the last point was made in jest!
I don't really begrudge anyone who enjoys the snow! If you happen to be able to fit it into your lifestyle, fantastic! All power to you or some such babble!
Me, I was looking forward to a couple of nice Ceroc Xmas parties, and a Christmas spent with family. The Ceroc nights are either cancelled or increasingly looking like they'll be cancelled, and the plans with family are in equal jeapordy. I'm not saying that utterly ruins Christmas, but it is a great disappointment.
I thought about this s'more... And to be honest, it's not really the snow that pisses me off, so much as how pathetic this country becomes when the slightest bit of white stuff hits the ground.
Of course, the irony of this is I'm complaining on the Ceroc Scotland forum, a country who of course have dealt with snow year in year out and frankly could teach the pansy English a thing or two about knuckling down and just getting on with it!
Hard to believe we ever survived world wars anymore!
Edit: So in retrospect, what you actually need is another option on this poll which says "I like snow, but I hate how pathetic this country gets when it falls, so I'd rather it didn't!"
Last edited by DJ Mike; 21st-December-2010 at 09:52 AM.
Countries that have a lot of snow every year can justify the cost of expensive equipment, the cost of labour, resources, etc, as it's essential for the economy to keep going.
The thing is, the recent snow in England isn't what we would normally see, so does the government gamble spending billions on improving how we deal with snow only to be criticised if it's not needed next year?
All that equipment and the associated, training, running, maintenance and storage costs is a lot to shell out for on weather that we might only get once every 10 years, right?
There was an item on Today this morning - basically, this extremely cold winter should have been predicted. In fact, it was predicted - just not acted on.
Considering we had a cold winter last year also, it'spossible that we'll have a few years of hot summers and cold winters - so some more investment in appropriate equipment looks a bit more sensible.
Personally, I've bought a spade.
This is true futher north certainly, but i live in Central Scotland and there was all sorts of cancellations, closed roads and panicing. Tesco even had a "no more than 4 loaves" per customer policy on at the height of our snow week. This week is fine, barely an inch has fallen since Thursday and public transport is still a mess into Edinburgh. Yes, its cold, but that doesnt explain why half the trains are cancelled and when the trains do come they have half the carriages
There's good and bad side's to this snow business. As someone else said, if you can afford not to work, you're not letting customers and friends down and you don't need urgent medical treatment, then its a great excuse to say "what the heck, lets just enjoy it'
But there's also other annoying things, like the two friends who've had their cars written off
One friend left their car in the safest place they could find and walked home because they were sensible enough to realise how dangerous it was.. only to come back the next day to find it completely wrecked and NO DETAILS WERE LEFT!
Another friend, kept an especially long breaking distance from the car infront but when the car behind hit 'her', it carried on pushing her into the back of the car infront and now their having and argument about who's insurance will pay for the damage to the car infront
And this will probably end up meaning that all our insurance premiums will go up next year!
Still, its all good fun!
MODERATOR AT YOUR SERVICE
"If you're going to do something tonight, that you know you'll be sorry for in the morning, plan a lie in." Lorraine
As if we didn't already have this on the horizon (insurance premiums are already due to jump quite a bit next year thanks to the rise in ambulance chasing firms).
Regarding us as a country being prepared for it - not more than a few decades ago we used to get some very brutal winters in this country. It's one thing saying "oh, but it doesn't normally happen so why bother preparing for it", but the simple fact is that we live in a very unpredictable climate.
By all rights, we should experience arctic winters on a level with Canada but we don't because of factors like the gulf stream. What has been observed is that we've been gifted mild winters these past few years because of the La Nina effect, which has finally switched round again. So climate experts are telling us to prepare for bitter winters ahead, and it looks like they've been proven right.
Yes, preparedness costs money - and I would be the first person to congratulate this country if we actually had a winter we were fully prepared for, for once! So no, I won't moan about the taxes.
I also think preparedness is only half the problem - the other half is about a state obsessed with safety and avoiding litigation.
Last edited by DJ Mike; 21st-December-2010 at 02:31 PM.
People seem very quick to jump on the 'look how the country goes to sh*t now when a couple of snowflakes appear, in my day we never had these problems even in a 10 foot drift' bandwagon but I think one essential factor in all this is that the reliance on road for traffic be it people to school (village school closures forcing travel), work (don't have figures but willing to bet that average commute distance now far in excess of 20 years ago), freight (online shopping, supermarket deliveries, etc) is far greater than it's ever been. So problems on the road stemming from this weather have a more wide ranging effect than ever they did previously.
Heh, my point wasn't to make an "in my day" argument - apart from anything else, I'm too young to be making those just yet! Rather, I was trying to illustrate that brutal winters shouldn't be treated as unexpected in this country, because we have a history of winters being rather unpredictable. The fact that the country goes to pot when snow appears isn't so much an indication that we had it better years ago, as much as a sign that we clearly need to steel ourselves if there are more winters like this (or worse) to come!
The rain is rapidly washing all the snow away at the moment in Waltham Abbey, although I have just had a look at the 24 hour forecast and heavy snow is predicted for this evening again.
I knew it was risky when I booked a stupidly expensive trip to the Lake District for me and Gav over Christmas. If we don't make it, I will be upset about the money we've lost, but the freezer is stocked & a cosy Christmas at home with 'im indoors is not to be complained about. I'm luckier than some folk.
Correct , "When i was a lad" (the 50s) although we were a two car family. I walked to school, Dad walked to work and Mum walked to the shops
This from a car maintenance manual my late Dad left me
Winterisation
Drain the Radiator ,remove the battery and protect from frost, Jack up car and remove wheels........
Well according to Yahoo weather ā tomorrow is light snow tomorrow, cloudy Thursday and sunny but cold on Friday (it may not be right but Iād believe it as it is much more positive)
http://uk.weather.yahoo.com/england/...ndon-27211802/
Such firms have an impact, but whether they're primarily responsible is open to question.
However drivers should pay the full costs their activities impose on others (such as being ridiculously cavalier towards the safety of others in these poor conditions).
If it takes ambulance chasing firms to make insurance companies pay the full cost, is that wrong.
On the roads clearly not safety obsessed enough.
Public transport may be another matter.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Bookmarks