First snow, the BIG FREEZE, and treacherous travel

News channels with 24-7 Superbowl hype or BBC TV with 24-7 “SEVERE” winter weather warnings…which of the two evils would you choose?

Tis true, it does in fact snow in London proper. A scenario, which, apparently is cause to shut down the entire city! Perhaps it is my fault for ignoring the warnings that were issued on the tube over the PA, at work via corporate emails, on the telly breaking into the news, and on some of my favorite British blogs, but all of these warnings were only calling for around 5cm in the city (2 inches my metrically challenges friends), 5cm MAXIMUM! The “storm” started off looking like this nice serene first snowfall…and I thought, oh how nice and British.

And it was endearing to find people roaming about the streets making street angels in the dusting that covered the road, grown men and women sticking out their tongues to catch the falling flakes. It was like these people had never seen snow before! I was appreciative of the naivete that characterized the first snowfall, and somewhat scorned the Bostonian nonchalance of trudging through 4-foot snow banks to get a cup of Dunks on a Saturday morning. As the snow continued to fall, and the men, women, and children reverted back to primary school snow days, I was somehow talked into preparing myself to make the trek south of the river to go to a friend’s birthday party followed by a night out in good old Clapham.

Clad in what I would hardly call “snow appropriate” attire, I set out through the centimeters of white stuff to get to the tube. Getting there was fine, but again I heard grumblings in the station about how they were already starting to see delays and it’s only going to get worse. Again, I ignored. After all I was Infernos bound! You don’t let a little snow stand in the way of you and London’s Greatest Disco! Off I went, and didn’t look back.

Since we started early, two of us decided we were going to try and also get an early jump on the getting home situation and try to catch the tube before it stopped running. Or so we thought. We both made it to our first train to take us to the good side of the river Thames, and parted ways while I headed to make my connection. There I was, sanding on the platform with 50+ people, and the TFL makes an announcement that, you know what, this line I need is no longer running, and we should just go ahead and find alternate transportation. What?!? It’s well past a respectable hour and I’m only at point B on the map below, and I need to get to E where my nice warm bed awaits. As a self-proclaimed tube extraordinaire, I just easily switch to another line and await the next train that will bring me closer to my final destination. 10 minutes. 20 minutes. 30 minutes go by. By this time there are about 100+ people on this new platform waiting for the train they say is coming momentarily. It finally arrives 45 minutes later, and of course it’s not the one that will take me all the way home, but I can get closer, so I sardine in and settle in for what I assume is going to be a long ride. Luckily for me, I can’t say everyone in the car would agree, but luckily, the train decided that a lot of the stops on the line are just not suitable for stopping given the “adverse weather conditions,” AKA 2 inches of snow on the tracks. Before I know it I was at the closest stop to my home I could feasibly get to via tube, point C, and it’s time to look for a cab. Of course there were none to be found… 

I set out walking to try and get myself in a position to flag one down. Feeling all Jo March-indignant as I walked through the snow to get anywhere warm, I had the ingenious idea to duck into a hotel to have the concierge call me a cab. I was desperate. What would you know? No cabs running at this time. Back to the streets.

Walking, walking, walking (only on well-lit streets, don’t worry mom and dad!) I spot a man disembarking a cab a few blocks up. SPRINTING I catch my new best friend, Cabbie. Pleading with him to drive me home I promise him a serious tip if he will bring me the rest of the way. Let it be known it was at point D I was finally rescued by my own little RMS Carpathia and I was on my way, of course not without a struggle…

Cabbie – “Lovey, I really should not be driving on these roads.”

Me – “You’ll be fineeeeeee just a little bit further” (There isn’t even enough snow to make tire tracks!)

Cabbie – “They said they were going to salt, I don’t see any salt”

Me – “Yea, you would think they would have prepared better for this.” (You don’t see any salt because there is no ice or snow to put the salt on!)

Cabbie – “I’m not going to be able to make this turn, I’ll have to let you out here”

Me – “That’s fine, thank you, get home safely.” (No big deal, I already walked 2 miles in this, what’s another 50 feet! Weenie Cabbie!)

Lesson learned, when they predict even the slightest accumulation of snow, I will be nowhere near the southern side of the river, and I certainly won’t be putting any of my good friends the cabbies in such “grave danger.”

English LESSON of the day: In light of the snowy, chilly weather I decided to make myself a cup of hot cocoa, only I decided to do a little experiment. Getting a little greedy and overly gluttonous I wanted to make my hot cocoa with milk instead of water, and seeing as my electric teakettle boiled water so quickly, why not use it for my milk? WRONG! It worked a little too quickly and I ended up with a burnt teakettle bottom and my whole flat smelling like candy floss (see previous post for definition). I was actually pleased to find out that burnt milk smells kind of nice! It could have been worse. But I did ruin my hot cocoa.