Well once again the UK grinds to a halt with a bit of snow. I know some places have been hit quite badly but even so there always seems to be a bit of hysteria about it. Obviously the media plays to it and, in my opinion, makes it worse!
A case in point is the school my boy goes to. The first phone call was to say that the buses were not running but school was going to be open. No problem I thought - I'll just break out the Discovery. Slightly easier said than done seeing as it had a flat battery and 2 flat tyres. Luckily we have one of those portable battery thingys that allows you to pump up tyres, jump start cars and run a normal 13 amp socket. Great bit of kit and proved very useful today.
Anyway, I drove him to school and the roads were pretty good even though it was snowing. Got myself home only to get another phone call about 45 minutes later from the school. This time it was to tell me that they were thinking about closing school and I should come and pick the boy up. Hang on I thought. Yes, it is snowing quite heavily at the moment but it is going to stop very soon (I could feel it in the air). I pointed this out but didn't get very far. Another 15 minutes later and I got the call to say that school was closing and I had to pick him up.
Guess what - it had stopped snowing by that time. I dutifully drove down to school - the roads were even better than they were about an hour earlier. Turned up on the doorstep only to be told that school was not closing they just wanted kids that had to be picked up to taken away because the roads were so bad. Being a little bit miffed by now I decided to leave him there because he was having too much fun!
If they had listened to me in the first place it could have saved a lot of us a lot of problems. The sun is out and the snow is melting fast here and my day of tracking in the snow has been ruined by other people's paranoia and over protectiveness. Damm. Though I do appreciate that there are plenty of worse hit places than here.
somerset, snow
6 comments:
Its the land of the mad, I'm in Leeds at the mo and you'd think they'd be used to it up here. What with it being 'grim up north' an all
SBW
Couldn't agree more! We just seem to overeact in this country about a bit of snow.
In my humble opinion it all stems from our ligitative society. This has led to Health and Safety gone mad. In turn we are breeding out common sense and any degree of risk taking whatsoever and engendering apathy and idleness.
I'd hate to think what species we will develop into in the future. Someone better draw another branch on Darwin's Tree of Life.
All the best,
Pablo.
Bang on the money, there, Pablo. Health and safety gone mad! I also think some of it to do with today's work ethic - just another excuse for people to have a day off work!
It's not only the UK that has the weather paranoia. Here in Holland it's the same.
A little bit of snow and the public transit won't drive anymore. And it's all because, as you said, of the media.
They make it worse then it often is.
The media have a lot to answer for in my opinion!
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