The Adventures of Mathew and Sabrina

I've been trying to write this posting for a while, but the words just won't come out...perhaps because my mind is doing all it can to stop thinking about the "adverse weather conditions" that have been causing such havoc and have been the center of so much attention since early Monday morning. For the sake of my sanity, I'm simply going to copy an email I sent about the drama. Here it is (and the pictures to illustrate)

So this week has been incredibly interesting as a Canadian in London. If you've heard anything about the UK in the last week, it's snowed; "adverse weather" as they call it, and "a significant snow event" as they predicted. The key word here is PREDICTED. They absolutely knew the snow was coming. In no way was it a surprise, yet the drama that ensued after it fell was hillarious!!!!

I woke up early (no bright here) on Monday morning and was thrilled that the ground was white. A little piece of home right here in London. It didn't look like much---so I measured; it was a whole 5 cm...7cm if I'm really generous. I loved it and I couldn't wait to get outside and see if the nice blanket of white made the city a nicer place to be. I called my teaching agency to see which school needed me, but no answer. To kill some time I checked out bbc.co.uk and that's when it all clicked. From the 5-7 cm of snow fall, London completely stopped. Most tube lines were completely closed, and the rest were severly delayed. All of the buses had been withdrawn and the rail service was kaput as well. Nothing was as it was supposed to be. Schools were even closed; people just couldn't get anywhere.

I'll admit I laughed---I'm still laughing. Coming from Canada you know what it means to have a significant amount of snow...and 5cm doesn't do it, but here---the world was ending I tell you. Luckily, I live on the 1 line that wasn't too badly effected, so I grabbed my camera and took to the center (which did take twice as long to get to) and saw London in a new light.

I'm still amazed that there was no one on the streets. The center was empty (in comparison to normal), but those who had braved it were acting as children, building snowmen and having snowball fights . The truly surprising thing about the whole situation was....EVERYONE WAS SMILING!!! I've never gotten a smile from a Londoner, but this day...things were just nicer (except when I had a couple of snowballs pitched at me by some Brittish brats who would have done well to get some schooling today....or ever. At least they stopped when I said they could "fuck off any time now"--yes. Responsible teacher am I.) I managed to get some great pictures and even better memories and headed home.

Things were getting back to normal by then, but still the next day---no school. Most rail service was still down and by now people were upset. All we heard about was the billions of pounds being lost by not having functioning businesses and the amount of money spent to salt things (or 'grit' as they call it). I don't fault London, as they never get this weather, so why should they have thousands of tons of salt ready or a few hundred plows, but really...should things have been so bad??

When we got back to school on Wednesday, they wouldn't let the kids go outside for morning recess because of the 'icy conditions!' What!!! That's what really killed me. These kids had been off playing in it for 2 days, but you can't do it at school. Who cares. Let them fall. Let them learn what ice is about...clearly the world is changing and I'm sure they'll need to get used to it soon. To give some real education to the younger generation I showed a great email I received from Ma Tante (a.k.a my new aunt Ellen) that shows winter in Saskatoon--you know, shovelling yourself out your frontdoor kind of winter. I thought it best that they learn that the weather that was causing them such problems was really just a nice Canadian spring. I'm not sure if they were intrigued or just terrified, but I surely got a kick out of it.

Well it's Saturday now and there was very wet snow falling yesterday morning; they've been calling for another storm since Monday---but it's yet to show itself. Maybe Mother Nature realized she couldn't alter the balance of London so much...people smiling...that's just not normal, and clearly to be avoided. I, for one, am certainly looking forward to seeing what another 'storm' might bring, especially with the salt all gone (literally no more in storage), but even more excited to know that I'll be in Italy as soon as Mat gets home (supposed to be Wednesday, but we'll see), finding my way through Venice, Milan, Naples, Florence---and Sicily (for a whole week hopefully).

The nice neighbours nextdoor we out taking pictures too and offered to snap this one.

New Oxford Street. Normally packed of cars, buses and pedestrians.

a mail box (or post box as they say)

Freddy Mercury winter style

A popular restaurant/pub closes its door because of the weather

brush marks in the snow---the city worker didn't have a shovel. I guess a broom was the next most logical thing.

near Covent Garden

Chinatown/Soho

Horatio Nelson on his column in Trafalgar Square

signs in Leicester Square

Leicester Square

Trafalgar Square

The National Gallery

Canada House (the embassy), located on the West side of Trafalgar Square

doors inside Canada House

the dining hall

the hallway

put on some pants already.

a changing of the guard ceremony (basically the only people who actually made it to work)

It's not a house---it's a little shed in St. James' Park

Westminster Abbey

The Parliament (taken from Parliament Square)

Since getting back to work, nothing has been very picture worthy, but this week things picked up. This is what I did this week.

On Wednesday, Ineke came to visit London and we met up for dinner. We met at Paddington Rail Station, the station where the lovely bear gets him name.

To comemorate this, there is a statue of Paddinton Bear in the station.

I noticed that Canada is doing it's part for tourism overseas.

To entertain myself on Thursday I took myself to the Annie Leibovitz exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery.

Leibovitz with her famous portrait of a pregnant Demi Moore (pic taken from Google)

Leibovitz is best known for her celebrity portraits for Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair.

This is Nicole Kidman, looking even more stunning than normal (who knew that was even possible)

I most enjoyed the portaits of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.

I finished up my Thursday at the Gielgud Theatre where a new comedy is being performed.

Enjoy is a well known British comedy (though apparently, it's very rarely performed). It was hysterical. An old couple await their move into a new masionette (their neighbourhood is being torn down). To assist the move, the council sends an observer to watch (and not interact) with the couple. Lots of laughs, a good seat...a great night!

Friday had me eating Sushi with Slavica. We took a course together at home and then realized we were here together after some Facebook contact (Go Facebook!). It's nice to have some more people from home here and we get along splendidly, so it's all great. We met up with Baker for some drinks after.

Kelly and I eventually found our way home on the 2 hour (and freezing cold) night bus (eww N8).

I recovered on Saturday and stayed in. It was only 2 degrees.

Sunday was the annual Chinese New Year Celebration. This year Trafalgar Square was a frenzy with Chinese lanterns, a stage with song and dance performances and a large crowd of people.

When waiting for Slavi I witnessed the filming of a scene from ?????. What a bore. The poor people were there for 20 minutes and were only shooting a 2 minute scene. As exciting as it seems...I think I'd be bored to death!

The man on the left with the very bronzed face is ???? (I've really got to find these things out). In the scene, the guy on the right screams out to him and they chat for 30 seconds.

We also ran into the Spar (a really bad corner store chain) that sells "Tim Hortons". The air quotes are to confirm this is not a Tim Hortons in ANY capacity. In fact, I'm considering writing to Timmies to let them know that their reputation is being ruined by having a coffee machine in a Spar. The 'coffee' was water...and the best part was the steam/smoke. Check it out!

Me with the imposter.

Slavi and I at Trafalgar Square

Everyone else at Trafalgar Square

We stayed in the Square for a few minutes and realized we couldn't see anything, so we spent the day looking through the National Gallery, the Art Gallery with European art from artists like Da Vinci, Van Gogh, Raphael, Monet and Rembrandt. With the audio guide we were thoroughly entertained...for 5 hours!! Then our brains shut down and we walked Soho.