The final snow?

I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and talk at length about our recent snowfall here in the UK!

As I think most of the developed world knows, the UK isn't really set up to deal with any kind of 'extreme' weather.  UK weather is normally pretty average:  average rain, average sun, average temperatures.  We've just been hit by a serious cold front; temperatures have dropped to negative double figures and snow lies thickly upon the ground.  We live out in the sticks and need to negotiate an untreated steep hill to get on to the main roads so the last two days for me have been spent working from home - fortunately the broadband still works and I can connect to work OK.

-10 degrees c at 0645 this morning

It's nice to look at for a while and Finn was certainly keen to get out in it (for twenty minutes at least), but after a while of course cabin fever sets in and you yearn for freedom.  The bread and milk starts to run low and you wonder how long you can work from home before the higher-ups decide you're taking the michael.

More icy than it looks

Assuming nothing radical happens tonight, I'm going to get up and leave early tomorrow morning and at least try to get in to work.  I managed to get the car out onto the road this evening and went for a slow trip round the block to see how things were and here's the thing - everything is fine as long as you're going along gently and don't have to slow down, speed up or steer too much, but as soon as you try to do any of these things the ABS comes on, the wheels start to spin or you drift off at a strange angle for a fair distance.  Meeting someone else coming the other way could become problematic, to say the least - hence my plan to get out v. early.  If it all goes to rats at least I can slink back without having to phone my insurance company.

But, and to finally get to the title of this post, it's likely that this is going to be the last major-ish snow we come in to contact with for years to come.  As we're planning to move to Sydney there's not much chance that heavy snow will be making its presence felt.  We'll have to make our way to the Snowies (which will be about 7 hours away) to be fairly sure of snow in the winter.  I don't know if we're going to miss it at all, it might be the sort of thing you only miss when it's gone - like so many other things...

Andy

White stuff

So, we are forecast between 10 - 20 cm of snow tonight which I find myself ridiculously excited about, rather disturbingly I feel I may wake early to take a peek out of the velux to check.  I feel at 31 this is rather unnecessary, however I can't fight it!  We rarely get snow where we live and having 2 little ones to help us appreciate it adds to the excitement.  Fingers crossed we will get enough to make our ungritted road impassable and force an impromptu day off with the littlies making snow angels.

So, today has been the day to decide on a shipping company to move our treasures to the other side of the world.  It looks like Crown Relocation are going to be the winners.  The sales guy really made me feel like they would care for our things and ensure our container arrived safe and sound.  We are thinking they will come and pack us up in the last week of January.  It's a bit of a shame that our belongings are going into storage before they are shipped as it means that we won't have a huge sea freight container outside of our house as boxes are loaded in.  I will be glad to commit to a shipper and not have to talk about it any more as to be frank I find the whole subject a little tedious after meeting 4 guys now and talking technicalities and insurance etc!

Today is Tuesday which means I have been to work.  That in itself is fine although my welcome home from Finn & Isla leaves a little to be desired.  They seem to punish me for being gone all day.  I don't see them in the morning as I start at 07:00 and I'm not home until 18:00 so just as they are going upstairs for a bath.  So, when I get home their frustration at my absence comes to the fore front.  They are generally a little irritable, quick to cry and Isla tends to be clingier than usual, but it makes me feel rotten.  I try to appease my guilt by reminding myself that it's only for another 6 months and then I will be off with them all of the time.  The plan is that I will stop work and Andy will be the sole breadwinner in Australia.  We want this for Finn and Isla.  I never thought that I would want to stay off from work and do the school run, after school clubs etc, but I do.  I really do.  I want to do it for them.

When they are both at school I will feel able to pursue other activities for some self development with the hope of doing some work to fit around when they need me.  I quite fancy doing a photography course and I have been looking at what the colleges in Sydney would have to offer for this pursuit.  I think that would offer me flexibility in the future and would help me to do something for me.

I've just looked out of the window.  It's still not snowing.  Grr.

Sarah