I used to find it amusing whenever the UK ground to a halt due to a bit of snow which Canadians/Swiss/Russians/Germans etc would barely even notice. However, I've realised during this season's current snowfest that the fact we're not equipped for it makes sense - as we're constantly being told, this is the worst "cold snap" this country's seen in 30 years. Would it really make sense for the country and individuals to invest in equipment/facilities that we'll only need for a few days, possibly once a year? I think not!
Proof that we're not used to snow and how to deal with it can be seen in the shots below. These were taken on a fairly major road round the corner from my house (I was on foot!), which normally has constant free-flowing traffic:
Look - cars pointing in all directions, and one on the pavement!
The traffic queues were due to people like this guy having to stop in the road to try and dig their cars out (credit to Sara Ellis for the following two shots):
And yet, despite the fact it was obviously going to take everyone ages to get wherever they were going - if they got there at all - I saw several people scraping their cars and digging out their drives so they too could join the melee:
Now I'm sure some of these people had genuinely necessary journeys to make, but I bet a lot of them just didn't think 'a bit of snow' could be such a pain in the ass!
Even my dad, in his 4x4, got stuck yesterday in a snowdrift up a local hillside! We'd planned to go sledging, but ended up spending almost an hour digging the car out, before reversing down the lane and going home:
So, whilst the snow has not adversely affected my life so far, let's just say I have a new-found respect for it!
