UK'S SNOW CHAOS

[InsaneApache]

We used to get snow like this a couple of times a year when I was a kid, nobody batted an eyelid. The trains ran, the buses ran, nobody stayed off work and all the schools opened. (Much to my dismay)

In fact my brothers and I had sledges in the outhouse that we got out every year. Towards the end of my schooling the headmaster would read the riot act about throwing snow(ice?)balls at people as, I quote, "You might take someones eye out with that!"

Nowt new there then.

I just wish my grumpy old man antenna was a bit more finely tuned and I'd had the gumption to report all those criminal teenagers chucking snow about.

I must pay more attention in future.

I forgot this. One of my first jobs was on a building site, sometimes it was that cold we had to scrap the shovels and use pickaxes to dig holes. It warmed you up anyway. One of the things we used to do was chuck snowball at each other, paying particular attention to the chargehand. Except that for him we used to put little stones inside so that it smarted when it hit him.

One joke we pulled one particularly snowy day was when we hid his motorbike. He had to go into town for summat or other and we seized our chance. Getting the block and tackle we hooked up said motorcycle and raised it about 20 feet into the air and manoeuvred it into the branches of a tree. You should have seen his face when he got back! He wasn't a happy chappy. He started shouting at us, so we pelted him with (aggregate ridden) snowballs.

It took him yonks to get his bike out.