Tuesday 3 February 2009

London Grinds to a Halt

Shock! Horror! London had 5 inches of snow yesterday, and it shouldn’t have happened, as it wasn’t Christmas day. Even then, 1 inch will do, thank you. One in five folk didn’t make it into work, with even all the bus services cancelled. Their hard working Mayor, Boris Johnson (should there be a Yeltsin there somewhere?), suggested that a lot more could have made the effort, telling us that he managed to cycle in. Does he not know that loads of workers in the capital do not live round the corner from their place of work, but have to commute from miles around?

 


Anyway, I’m reminded that in the Highlands of Scotland, when we used to have 6 foot high drifts in the fifties, sixties, and seventies, we used things called shovels when there were no snowploughs available, and managed to make it to work. If it was icy, we used chains on the wheels, and got to work that way. 5 inches of snow? That’s a light covering, for goodness sake. It was –20 degrees in Moscow yesterday, but things went on as normal. It seems that some local authorities are simply not geared up to cope with weather that is not the norm.

 

The saying, "Making a mountain out of a molehill" springs to mind, and it reminds me of a fellow I knew years ago, who claimed to be having a massive heart attack each time that he broke wind from either end.

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