“Wow! You should see the snow!!!” was what awoke me the next morning. In fact I noticed how it was still dark. 7am, and Johnaitch had looked out his window, and seen the snow. Being a dutiful 11-year-old boy with the day off school anyway, he jumped up, was dressed and out the door by half past. I went out as the sun had just crept over the Rheola ridge and with new 4Mp camera in tow, took a picture of the drive using about 1.5% zoom. The picture itself did the snow justice.
I think you’ll agree the snow doesn’t actually look real. Sort of like a model maybe made for Thomas the Tank Engine or Thunderbirds. Well so impressed was I with the picture, I sent it to the BBC’s website “send us your pics.” The Welsh division didn’t work, so I sent it to the national one instead, not expecting it to appear anywhere.
So it appeared here (picture 6)…
And here (Picture 2)…
And the BBC News background for the weather on the lunchtime news (!)
The funny thing is, it’s not my car. It’s my next-door neighbour’s. I would have taken a picture of my car, but the sun would have been directly in sight, and the picture wouldn’t have come out.
I knew it was bad, because this morning I had 39 emails telling me they’d seen my picture.
In the meantime, I will soldier on. Neath Port Talbot, in a cost cutting exercise, decided they weren’t going to send a snowplough up to my humble village. I, being the childish funster I am, decided to take the car out anyway. When I’d got the car out of the drive (which took an hour) I drove with much pleasure as I saw one inexperienced 4 wheel driver slipping and sliding into banks, walls, and ditches. Here I am, in a 2 front wheel drive Volvo, showing them how it should be done. The highlight was a friend with a tyre emporium. He’s into his rallying, so he’d fitted forestry tyres to his Subaru Impreza, slammed it into high torque 4-wheel drive mode, and has taken it up the steepest hill he can find in the area. Somewhere even the most experienced snow driver would avoid.
In the meantime, poor little Johnaitch was out all day. He returned home about 6:30, wet, tired, and very thirsty. He went to bed early, only to appear at midnight blowing chunks. Snow sickness.
Kids, they’ll never learn.
