What's the point
of those f*cking 4X4s if people don't use them in adverse weather conditions? Isn't that the bloody point?!?
"Oh, I don't want to ruin my shiny alloys or my leather interior!" Muppets!
Lightweights the lot of 'em!!
Wrong kind of winter brings England to a halt
England was plunged into a Siberian winter this morning with train company websites frozen right across the South East. A chill wind from Russia dumped a mountain of snow on England, with some gardens experiencing drifts of up to 18 inches deep. Panic buying of milk, prosciutto, Bordeaux and other essentials promptly broke out …
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Monday 2nd February 2009 12:19 GMT Anonymous Coward
Amazing
Come on - you spend £50k on a Range Rover or BMW X5, you're not a farmer and can't be expected to know what that "low ratio" lever is all about - you never have used it before. In fact, if you do think you know what you're doing, as the article says, you'll end up causing more problems.
Train companies. Highways agency. Snow we knew was coming several days in advance. FAIL.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 12:19 GMT Anonymous Coward
Nottingham North??
Last time I checked Nottingham was in the south of England along with Mancester. If you Londers would like to insist that anywhere above the M6 is North why don't you build a moat and be done with it.
Way I see it your not a Northerner until there are parts of Scotland further south than your location.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 12:19 GMT Prag Fest
Excuse me but....
I got to the office at 7 on the dot in my 4x4 thank you very much, unlike most of my collegues who didnt fancy it one bit. And besides, I could drive about in this all day, it's all the c**ts in Corsa's wheel spinning to oblivion on every slight inclne that cause the problems. So there.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 12:19 GMT Sir Runcible Spoon
Motorbikes
saw four of them on the way into London this morning. Hard Core ! (read - fucking idiots!)
I nearly died half a dozen times myself just so I could get my laptop and leg-it back home to work in the warm - it was dicey enough in a car, let alone a bloody bike!
Flames - just enough to warm your toes
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Monday 2nd February 2009 12:19 GMT Anonymous Coward
What a Clint
unless you air brushed it.
Just in time for the strikes, you can see who's side God is on.
Now the strikes have gone all bikini black and nuclear, they have three options, come out in sympathy or have a snow day!
And for anyone who who wishes to correct the three to a two, I say to you there are 10 types of people in the world, those who know discrete mathematics and those who don't.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 12:21 GMT John Ozimek
The Good, the Bad, the Ugly
Sorry, but...why is a reference to the esteemed Mr Eastwood, star of many a smash spaghetti western (not to mention the "Dirty Harry" franchise) now deemed nsfw.
Its political correctness gone mad, I tell you.
Paris - because she sometimes has difficulty spelling "Clint"
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Monday 2nd February 2009 12:21 GMT Tom
London != Everywhere
Apparently the country has come to a complete standstill because London has. A light dusting of snow gave my street a nice Christmasy feel. Snow was a bit heavier over the border in Carmarthenshire with a few schools shut - but that was mainly because the bus companies stopped the school buses and the schools that were shut sovered a large rural area. All people need is just a little common sense - but there in lies the problem.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 12:40 GMT Mark
No need for 4x4
Winter tyres, use a higher gear lower speed (torque limitations are overwhelmed by the lack of traction. using a low gear gives you torque you can't use, a higher gear you HAVE to be gentle with).
Farmers get around all day in knackered old ford cortinas and vauxhalls. No 4x4 (they're too expensive).
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Monday 2nd February 2009 12:40 GMT Bruno Girin
Good journey in the office
It's not all bad actually. I managed to make it into the office reasonnably well: I waited 15 minutes for an elusive First Capital Connect service before being told it would be another 15 minutes before we saw the shadow of a train. So I decided it would be quicker to use the Northern line and discovered that because most people had decided to stay at home, the tube was actually working fine and was even quite pleasant as it was much less crowded than normal.
The TFL's journey planner was slow but working this morning too. Now, of course, the information it provided for services such as FCC (see above) was completely unreliable as FCC forgot to tell TFL they had severe delays and cancellation. Not that it significantly changes the quality of service of course.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 12:42 GMT Anonymous Coward
Essential Journeys
We are being advised not to attempt to travel 'unless our journey is essential'.
Trouble is, leave that judgement up to a lot of London commuters, and they'll get it utterly and pathetically wrong.
I'd like to see them advise people not to travel whether they think their journey is essential or not.
Where's the Nanny State when you need it? Too busy sniffing around in overfilled dustbins.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 12:55 GMT Anonymous Coward
re: low ratio on BMW X5
I am not sure the X5 has low ratio gearbox - however driven correctly then the Xdrive (4 wheel drive system), traction control and stability programmes it will be more than a match for the weather - same system certainly got me in today without hassle :-)
but lets face it - those people who don't allow enough braking distances in the wet and and don't adjust their speed (downwards when required) to merge in/keep flowing at junctions etc. - i.e. unable to think more than 5 mtrs down the road aren't going to be able to cope whatever the car (and just as likely to be in an Audi, Ford, Toyota etc as a BMW) in this weather
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Monday 2nd February 2009 12:56 GMT Anonymous Coward
Short memories
I'll not resort to the typical "Southern pansies" comments I'm sure will have been posted by now, but will instead remind Londoners that historically, they've had much worse weather in the past, and done just fine.
There were more tube and bus services running during the Blitz than during this "light sprinkling".
I mean, FFS. Southern nancies for teh wi....I mean EPIC FAIL.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 14:29 GMT Mike Crawshaw
Essential Journeys
<enters ruddy-faced and glowing>
I love how the police, travel companies etc say "only travel if your journey is essential". I keep trying to convince my bosses that my coming to work isn't actually essential, but they disagree, dammit.
And if London split from the rest of UK, they'd get to keep all the politicians, as well as the vast majority of consultants, financiers, lobby groups, homeopaths, hairdressers, middle management and telephone sanitisers, which would be just perfect for the rest of us!
<goes to make snow angels>
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Monday 2nd February 2009 14:29 GMT Stephen
London breakaway?
I have to agree with Sarah here.
London should breakaway imagine the benefits.
1) London shrinks in size and importance as nobody can get in from outside to work there.
2) Public money actually would get spent elsewhere in the UK.
3) The rest of us might actually be able to buy local homes without Londoners buying them up first.
Maybe we should make Scotland the new capital of the UK at least they could teach us all how to deal with snow. Grabbing my coat, mine's the one that looks like its for an Arctic expedition.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 14:29 GMT Luis Ogando
North??
Nottingham is neither North, nor south. It's in the Midlands. The East Midlands, actually. We know this because the telly has East Midlands Today on it..... I think.
Still, a massive clint is wildly entertaining!
Incidentally, it's snowing here in Hannover (that's Germany - possibly North) and all the trams/underground trains are running fine. Vorsprung durch bloody-mindedness!
Paris 'cos, well, she's got a huge clint too (probably)
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Monday 2nd February 2009 14:29 GMT Anonymous Coward
(untitled)
As per usual, a sprinkling of snow and the whole country falls apart.
In fairness though, those side roads are treacherous, if you drive off it's knowing that sliding into your neighbour's car is on your own head. Never sure if tyre chains are legal on our tarmaced roads, but in any case, never seen them used. So it's up to the councils to get the roads sorted before 'getting up' time :-)
(Of course, if the town planners ensured everyone could live in decent accommodation within walking distance of work, it'd be a lot easier to cope with.)
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Monday 2nd February 2009 14:29 GMT Matthew Collier
@RE:Tube
"Contrary to your research notes, Evil Auditor, the vast majority of the London Underground is actually OVERGROUND. So are the depots. And how were the staff to get to work?"
Vast majority, surely not? ;) The staff are supposed to get to work, presumably, 'cos the Tube isn't running, by other methods, like other people who would usually rely on public transport.
Trouble is, it would appear that nobody down here in the South has any ability to drive, especially in the snow, even though it's only 4-8 inches deep.
I'll bet our European cousins, are once again, laughing at how incompetent we are!
Matt (southern shandy drinker, like the rest of us ;) )
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Monday 2nd February 2009 14:29 GMT Lottie
aaah
My little brother loves this weather. He drives round in his REAL landrover and charges people to tow their X5s and fronteras out of ditches.
I however just find it a nuisance. I have to walk a little more carefully, but the opportunities to take some awesome pix on my cameraphone are worth it.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 14:29 GMT Red Bren
Media Circus
After hearing the news about the freak cold weather covering the country (in February, when we least expect it!!!) I decided not to risk the treacherous journey to work and stayed in bed. Imagine my dismay when my boss phoned me at 9:30 demanding to know why I wasn't in the office. How was I to know that "Britain paralysed by blizzards" meant a few millimeters of snow in the south-east?
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Monday 2nd February 2009 14:29 GMT Oliver Mayes
Why's everyone so worried?
I love it when it's like this, there's so many people staying at home that the office is lovely and quiet. I had no problem driving in to work and it only took me an extra 5 mins.
Only real incident was when I was going along an un-gritted road. Limit was 30mph, I was in my Peugeot 307 doing about 10mph along with a few other careful drivers. Some 17yo in a 1.2 Fiesta with tinted windows, fake alloys and a fake chrome exhaust tried to overtake us all at what looked to be 40mph+. He didn't quite make it and just span around a few times when he tried to pull back onto the right side of the road again. Then he just sped off again once he'd stopped sliding. Lucky there wasn't anyone coming the other way really, that could have been messy.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 14:29 GMT Goatan
Excuses, excuses
Really this is Just a great excuse to say your "snowed in". I realise that the truth is; there is a minor amount of snow and that noone wants to work. Today is famously also "National sick day" where there is the largest amount of employees calling in sick. All that has happened is a golden excuse fell from the sky that has meant noone has to work (at least if your a southern fairy).
Well i say find yourself a hill and fasion yourself some form of toboggan, for today shall go down in hostory as the National Unexpected Toboggan Slalom. At least thats My Understanding of Todays Snow. Or the MUTS NUTS.
Mines the one with the wooley hat and gloves.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 14:34 GMT Magnus Ramage
Nottingham and North
Well I hate to break in with a bit of accuracy , but Nottingham's in the Midlands (ok, strictly speaking the East Midlands). You know, the bit in the middle. Not the North bit or the South bit. The bit between the two. Shall I write that in UML to be clearer?
Looked at from Scotland, not that I do any more, they're all southern anyway.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 14:34 GMT Anonymous Coward
Just be thankful...
...and enjoy spending time with your family or friends. To all those who struggled to get into work this morning (and worse, then bragged about it to everyone who is having a day off) LOSERS! Sucks to be a contractor I guess ;)! Get out on a sledge/snowboard and have some fun you joyless jaded f*ckers.
Woohoo!
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Monday 2nd February 2009 14:34 GMT Lukin Brewer
Report from Kingston Upon Thames
We got about five or six inches of snow overnight. The roads and pavements were salted and gritted the day before, and snow isn't settling now on pavements that have been cleared. All the schools are out (this never happened in *my* day) and SW Trains are running reduced services. It's supposed to be bin day today, but they haven't been and probably aren't coming.
Not bad, all things considered. After all, this is the first proper snowfall in years.
BTW, I always used www.livedepartureboards.co.uk for train times. It's running fine.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 14:34 GMT Steven Raith
It's been a classy day so far
Took a slooow train into London - anyone coming in on the Hertford Loop about 11ish would have been treated to an hour of truly staggering, Christmas card landscapes. I rarely pay attention to that sort of thing, but it was proper good today. Between Hertford North and Cuffley was especially pretty.
Then, coming back from getting lunch, someone called me a 'mug' for taking my time on the [frankly lethal, unlcleared and ungritted] pavements around Lambeth and making space for one of the local shop owners who was carrying some boxes, before flouncing past us in a huff.
This was about five steps before he himself fell flat on his backside. Who's the mug with the wet arse then? Ha! Tosspot.
I'm going to scrawl up a report, have another coffee and some chocolate biccies, and sod off home methinks. I have no idea how you southerners [anyone south of Inverness, for the record....] manage to cock winter up so badly, but it never ceases to entertain me when you do :-)
Steven R
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Monday 2nd February 2009 14:34 GMT Anonymous Coward
I was out for drinks last night
And I wish I'd have thought of that in Notts town square.
And to be fair, I've got a broken foot, a hangover and had to shovel 3 foot of snow out my drive, push my car out (no reverse at the moment) and drive through the snow to work 45 minutes away.
And I made it on time.
So you're all a bunch of pansies for not going in! :P
(Mid you, if not for said broken foot, i'd have jacked off work and gone snowboarding!)
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Monday 2nd February 2009 14:34 GMT Anonymous Coward
Don't worry about a few snowflakes in Blighty
The snow will be gone in no time. Meanwhile down here in Aus we have +40C of dry hell in the south with 37 dead from the heat. At the same time there areas larger than the UK under floodwater in the north. Oh, and a cyclone or two.
Enjoy the fluffy white stuff while you can.
Paris, because...er, just because.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 14:38 GMT Tom Simnett
It's the Russians
Has no one considered that this "snow" is coming from Russia? The Kremlin have clearly realised that traditional methods of terrorism and killing the banking system have had little or no effect on the economy, and the only way to destroy it is to create a large snow cannon from which they can fire snow at various countries...
Black helicopter...well because it's obvious!
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Monday 2nd February 2009 14:50 GMT Anonymous Coward
Tubey doobey doo
Sat basking in the warmth of my radiator as minimal chance of getting to work today. I think my reasoning was "I can make it, but can I make it back?". And I live in Zone 2.
As for the tubes, yeah most run overground despite the name for the majority of the lines. Can someone explain to me how the Waterloo and City line was closed this morning though??
Off to watch tools making "oh so important journeys" and skidding all over the place. Second gear, low revs people!
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Monday 2nd February 2009 15:04 GMT Mark
Sarah Bee Posted Monday 2nd February 2009 12:42 GMT
"I am so very weary of all the whinging and it's only lunchtime."
A) You write the articles. Don't like it? Don't write it.
B) Many people are weary of all the "*tard" and other canon that KEEPS getting posted. However, we have to like it or lump it. Please do the same.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 15:09 GMT Sarah Bee
Re: Sarah Bee Posted Monday 2nd February 2009 12:42 GMT
a) The comments are appended to the articles and aren't always directly in reference to them. And I didn't write this one.
b) I think you're mistaken, dear. We publish stuff according to what we want to say. You read it and respond to it. If you don't approve of an article, you can stop reading it. If we don't approve of a comment, we can nix it.
You can ask as nicely as you like - and that actually wasn't especially nicely, was it? - but I'm not going to do the same, no. So you can cram it.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 15:24 GMT W
North - South
Scotland being a seperate country and having the Highland-Lowland divide, is excluded from the English North-South equation.
If you have to deny the existence of the English Midlands, then grab a map, draw a line from the Wash to the Severn. That's yer dividing line.
Note that Northampton, logically, is in the north of the southern territory, and Leicester, Birmingham and Nottingham (none of which are in any way suvvern) are firmly in the northern territory.
I actively encourage those living in the "South of Wash-Severn" territory, the SoWS, to form their own country. Note that your government will undoubtedly be Tory.
The "North of Wash-Severn" folk, the NoWS can then get on with life without a much reduced London-centric grass/arse brigade. You will have a Labour government.
How'dya like them onions?
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Monday 2nd February 2009 15:24 GMT Mike Crawshaw
@ Sarah - I'll see your "pfft" and raise you a "sheesh"
"And besides it's several inches of snow here. It's hardly a 'sprinkling'."
I'm from Canada.
"several inches of snow" == "sprinkling".
in March 2008 we had up to 183 inches (that's over **15 FEET**, folks....), and we still functioned. Apart from where people stole the snowblowers... (you can't trust those Quebecois!)
Londoners*. Their reactions to snow are so predictable.... God.
(*includes anyone living there and joining in the local pastime of whining about 3" of snow making life impossible.)
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Monday 2nd February 2009 15:31 GMT Vincent Ballard
The North
I was going to fly into Stansted today, and the local aviation authority assured me that my flight wasn't cancelled. When I reached the airport they'd changed their mind.
As for the North: speaking as a man of Kent I can confidently assert that it begins not at the Watford Gap but at Watford. The Midlands begin somewhere around Chelsea.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 15:31 GMT Pierre
@ you Brits
"Hardly a sprinkling", huh? I could go to work in cross-country skis if so I wished (and it's dowtown). All hail the County and it's puny, snow-fearing inhabitants! ;-) Hope your feet's hair is well, hobbits!. And this is our queen's country. Pah!
Mine is the... forget it, it's only -15, I don't need no coat.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 16:20 GMT Anonymous Coward
Dear, northerners
We down south don't get to play in the snow very often, so we make a big song and dance so we don't get into trouble when we grab a sledge and head to anything resembling a hill.
Kids down here will perhaps experience snow you can play in once every three years, so probably once or twice during childhood when they are the right age to enjoy it.
Disclaimer
Rantings of an extremely pissed off southerner who's idiot northern boss decided to make sure we all "Come into work if we can" and has subsequently missed out on watching a five year old who hasn't stopped asking "When is it going to snow?" since xmas, playing on a sledge. So
FECK OFF YOU PIPE SMOKING FERRET BOTHERING CLOTH CAPPED LOSERS .
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Monday 2nd February 2009 16:20 GMT Anonymous Coward
To Sarah... and others...
... We know that London should become its own country... in fact it already is known to be a third-world banana republic masquerading as a first-world capital. Soooo... :-)
And snow is fun! What's the fuss about? Take the day a bit slower, a bit more careful and you'll get to work and back in one piece.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 16:20 GMT Adrian Challinor
But where is...
The now mandatory comment about Man Made Climate Change? Surely this cold weather blowing in from the Arctic must be to do with all the CO2 that gas guzzling 4x4s generate. Right? I mean, it stands to reason, Cold spell = Global Warming.
And where is the Play Mobile reconstruction of no trains, no buses, few tubes and load ohelsea farms teaching how to drive the Toyota Land Cruiser?
Come on Sarah, get with the plot here, we want a reconstruction and we will babble on about Southern woofters until we get one.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 16:20 GMT goggyturk
Up North?
Speaking as someone who drove from north of Aberdeen to Edinburgh Airport on a Sunday morning in November in white out conditions with several feet of drifting snow along the Howe of the Mearns and ungritted and unploughed main roads to Stirling, and STILL made it in time for my flight, I have only this to say:
HA HA HA HA HAAAA!!!!! What a bunch of pussies!
PS - drive carefully out there. High RPMs are bad in snow. Oh, and steer into any skids.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 16:20 GMT Red Bren
@W
"If you have to deny the existence of the English Midlands, then grab a map, draw a line from the Wash to the Severn. That's yer dividing line."
That's your South/Midland dividing line. Take another line from the Wash to where the Welsh/English border meets the coast, that's your North/Midland dividing line.
"How'dya like them onions?"
If you answer sautéed, you're a southerner.
If you answer fried, your northerner.
If you answer pickled, you're a midlander*
*I know I'll get flamed for this but Staffordshire is the spiritual home of brewing and pickling!
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Monday 2nd February 2009 16:22 GMT Tony
Eeeeh when I were't lad
I'm old enough to remember the winter of '63 (no, not 1563). The main road between Weymouth and Portland was closed for 4 days and they couldn't fly supplies in by 'copter as they were all grounded. Part of the sea froze around the naval base that is (I think) now the new National Sailing centre.
It took the army the best part of another day to force their way through with a snowblower, gritter and a man in a landrover oragnising them. They were panicking as they were expecting hundreds to be dying from exposure or similar.
However, we were all OK - the local shokeepers took orders from their customers and then forced their kids to go out with sleds to deliver the stuff on foot. As we had all local suppliers, we could have lasted for sometime (I'm told that in '47, they had too as the cold spell lasted for almost 4 months). In fact, all the kids thought it was a great laugh - but then we didn't have X-boxes and mobiles, and 300 odd channels of TV to miss
The entrance to our house was on the side - the snow drifted up to just below the window on the second floor (about 18 feet) - the only way out was through the kitchen window and drop into the large drift at the back of the house (we lived on the first floor). And I was wearing shorts!
The kids of today dun't know the're born...
@ Sarah
"So you can cram it. "
Just remember, not everyone was born a tosser - some of them have had to work really hard at it....
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Monday 2nd February 2009 16:43 GMT Jolyon Ralph
nasty white shit
Well, helpful advice of Highways agency today was "stay at home".
Which would be great advice except I had to pick up my wife from Gatwick Airport this morning.
Now my 4x4 (which I do know how to drive, thank you very much) copes fine with the conditions, but the jouney was made a living hell - primarily by Supermarket delivery lorries jack-knifed all over the place and various high-end german cars that were all skidding like a pengin on ecstasy.
Round trip from Mitcham to Gatwick - 5 and a half hours.
So in future, and maybe tomorow, if you DON'T have a 4x4 then please stay the fuck at home so those of us who can drive... can drive.
Jolyon
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Monday 2nd February 2009 17:07 GMT Tawakalna
Losers?
"FECK OFF YOU PIPE SMOKING FERRET BOTHERING CLOTH CAPPED LOSERS ."
I have never lost my cloth cap. or, more appropriately, 'av ne'rl ustus cap, thi big southern jessie!"
I did however lose my ferret once, but i wasn't bothered. I just smoked my pipe and contemplated the mysteries of nature.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 17:07 GMT Steve Liddle
no problems
Woke up later than usual, walked to the main road and looked ok, visited a couple of local site, including a long hil, going down was fun as did not really want to brake and slide down the hill.
Far too many people tailgating me and other drivers
Tried to work on the laptop, but yet again no intranet or internet
Local hills being used to good effect. although some people found it wet in the ditch at the bottom of the hill
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Monday 2nd February 2009 17:07 GMT Mark
Scott Posted Monday 2nd February 2009 15:21 GMT
"You could write the best article ever written but if only idiots comment "
Hey, this isn't *my* job. And if it were my job and I didn't like it, I'd not do it.
It's not like we're *forcing* Sarah Bee to do this, are we.
My point was and still is that there are many things on this site that a lot of people don't like and are sick fed up to the back teeth with. Yet still this site lets them happen and even, in many cases, join in.
And if we complain about it we're told "stuff it, we're keeping it". Well, people WILL keep doing the stuff that annoys you Sarah, because it doesn't annoy *them* doing it.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 17:13 GMT Sarah Bee
Re: Scott Posted Monday 2nd February 2009 15:21 GMT
>Well, people WILL keep doing the stuff that annoys you Sarah, because it doesn't annoy *them* doing it.
That's it exactly. We keep doing the things that annoy you, because in fact it gives us tremendous pleasure.
I think possibly in the end we might win. Not that it's a competition. But yeah.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 19:01 GMT ThinkingOutLoud
Congratulations!
If you managed to get this far down the comments column, you clearly have some spare time on your hands. I did.
My bosses wouldn't let me go out in my Scooby today, insisting I was only insured to drive the Pug307 the cheapskates give me. Bah!
On the subject of CLINTS, there used to be a video hire shop in my area called FLICKERS. Didn't trade for long... There must be a porn film featuring C*nt Eastwood, surely?
Paris because she has a warm place I can park my cold bits.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 19:01 GMT Law
@sarah, pfft
"And besides it's several inches of snow here. It's hardly a 'sprinkling'.
God."
It's hardly the Siberian apocalypse that londoner's are screaming about in terror either. God! *rolls eyes*
I managed to get down the tiny grit-less snow filled country roads up 'ere in t'north (so probably more snow than that there london) ... no problem in my puny 2 wheeler Ford Focus, although I did get slightly nervous when a lonesome van did a complete 360 in front of me at less than 20 mph....
Mines the one going down the spooky deserted lampless snow-filled country roads with no mobile signal or houses for miles on way home at approx 18:30 tonight.... :(
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Monday 2nd February 2009 19:01 GMT Paul Murphy
I took the day off.
Since using the trains was out of the question (a rolling set of various failures and suspended services), and I wouldn't drive in to work when it was fine, let alone with snow and wallies to contend with, I changed my schedule for the day.
Primary task (snowman building) was completed by 10am, with snowball fight afterwards - though my wife didn't want me to throw anything at her, since my snowballs hurt apparantly.
Secondary tasks such as finding out why the downstairs radiators didn't work, sorting out the bins, making sure elderly neighbour was Ok and playing Guitar Hero world tour with the family (kids schools closed) were all completed and now it's waiting to see what happens for tomorrow.
It was a good day today.
ttfn
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Monday 2nd February 2009 19:02 GMT W
@ Red Bren
I'd say you're bob-on there, duck.
As a Midlander (Leicester, Lincolshire, then Birmingham) now living in Scotland, via time spent in the North (Manchester & Sheffield), I've always been affronted by Londonshire's Midlands-denial. As such, I've always felt Northern rather than Southern when pushed to choose sides and given only those two options.
Regarding onions, I'd say that as long as they're slathered in gravy, I'm happy. There's another dividing line for yers: gravy. Chips ain't chips without it.
Exception: the Edinbuggers in the East, with their "sauce".
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Monday 2nd February 2009 19:02 GMT Mark
And we keep annoying you for the same reason.
Win? Who's "losing"? Nobody.
You whinge about how hard done by you are. I feel good that I made you notice.
You put up stuff that pisses me off, and you feel good about it too.
But it took you how long to admit you just troll, same as the ones you complained about waay back up the thread?
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Monday 2nd February 2009 19:02 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: To Sarah... and others...
"And snow is fun! What's the fuss about?"
No fuss here ... must have been 2-3 inches lying when I put the bins out this morning and by the time I had to take the car in for its service the school-run mummies in their Chelsea tractors had done a nice job of clearing away the worst of the snow. Later in the afternoon, out on the mountain bike for a bit of bridleway-bashing in the snow - so yeah, snow is fun although the 'cleaning the salty crap off the bike' post-ride ritual is less so.
Predictably enough, the local rag was full of predictions of meteorlogical armageddon, which must be why it took a good 15 minutes to brush all the accumulated global warming off my motor.
Looks like I picked the right week to take off work :-)
Flames, 'cos my feet are cold.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 22:54 GMT Apocalypse Later
Four by four
It's a big mistake to go out in your 4x4 in these conditions. Every hundred yards or so there will be some idiot who has run his Mondeo into a ditch and sees you as his saviour. They'll run out in front of you waving their arms, and it is really difficult not to run them down, and not just because of the physics of friction and momentum.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 22:54 GMT J
Fun
This page is fun, from a Southerner (I mean, South of the freakking Equator, really) perspective. Where we have no snow, and have no clue that them nice people in the UK actually think their land is big enough to be meaningfully divided in "South", "Mid", "North", whatever. Now I know.
Although the "snow debate" is the same here where I live (Richmond, VA USA, not UK). If there is *forecast* of a quarter inch of snow, the rednecks buy all the bread and milk available, schools close, everyone is skidding around in the streets in their SUVs (if forecast snow actually falls, whic hasn't happened in a long while here), etc. Then it's time to hear from the Chicago/Minnesota/ Wisconsin/Canucks/etc people about how this is nothing, etc. They have a point though, since even a Brazilian like me has driven fine here without any special car (unless a 1990 Dodge is special in that sense).
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Monday 2nd February 2009 22:54 GMT Brad Darwin
Needs a title
As a Canadian I must say that I am disappointed in my fellow members of the Commonwealth. It takes a good half meter of snow before we even THINK of shutting down the buses here, and even then the subways would keep running (because they're, you know, underground). Even after all those are shut down we keep driving our cars, the vast majority of which are just front wheel drive sedans, none of this AWD or 4WD crap.
We don't turn a couple inches into international news.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 22:54 GMT Andy Bright
Right tires
Before I moved to Alaska I was always irritated by the surprised look on public transport's face that it snowed in winter. "It was unexpected" "It took us by surprise" "We aren't used to this".
Yes the unexpected took them by surprise and despite the same white stuff falling every year without fail in January and February, they aren't used to it.
Then you have the complete pricks that think 4X4 means their cars have the power to defeat the laws of physics. All 4 wheel drive does is provide additional traction, allowing you to pull away and keep moving in conditions that leave 2 wheel drive vehicles stuck.
An SUV or truck's greater clearance continues to allow you to keep moving when a six or more inches of snow would snag a smaller vehicle, and an altogether different technology prevents skidding. It's called electronic or automatic stabilization, telling your modern day ALL wheel drive vehicles what power to assign to each axle or even an individual wheel. However this doesn't mean you can drive 60 MPH in a foot of snow and expect to stop in the space of 20 meters when you catch up with the predictable 20 car pile up.
Ever been in a 4 wheel drive vehicle when it loses it in snow or ice? Not pretty. No amount of of corrective steering is going to get you out of that one and the top heavy part is a particularly impressive conclusion to the experience.
But despite all the gizmos of 4 wheel drive, the simple truth is the best weapons you have for snow are your tires and having the right ones for winter conditions.
I've lived in Alaska for 10 years and only had all wheel drive for 2. Never failed to get around, because if we had a problem getting to work or school when it snowed, the whole state would be shut down for 6 months of the year. Our airports don't close either, but that's another story.
Of course it helps that our local authorities aren't taken by surprise by the season of winter, ie they expect to happen every year, but simply using all weather tires allows the financial mortals amongst us to keep moving when the racing slicks they sell in the UK would fail.
So the moral is simple. Get better tires and drive at sensible speeds, even if you have a 4X4. Cos everyone is definitely going to laugh at you if you stick your shiny new jeep in a ditch.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 22:54 GMT Anonymous Coward
What about the critical infrastructure
funny how nobody is commenting about how a website that could be considered to be a bit of critical information infrastructure went down easier than a pint of lager.
do SWT and NRE have an emergency infromation procedure? they could of replaced all their site with a static page, and that would have sifficed for 98% of what people were looking for this morning. could have been edge-cached across the net.....
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Monday 2nd February 2009 22:54 GMT jake
70F-ish & sunny CA checking in ...
People forget how to drive in weather they don't see very often. Here in California, people can't even drive in the RAIN, FFS ... kinda makes our current drought a mixed blessing. I'm dreading the rain we're supposed to get this week. The roads are going to be slicker than owl shit for a couple days, unless/until we get enough water to wash the oil layer away ... and I have to commute from Sonoma to Ukiah for a couple days later this week. Was looking forward to biking thru' wine country, but I think I'll take something a little more protective ...
I learned to drive in the snow in Yorkshire in the mid-late '70s ... I remember riding my 250 Super Dream home from school[1] thru' 14" of snow one dark afternoon ... wasn't fun, but I didn't drop it. I did have studded tires, which undoubtedly are the only reason I made it. These days I know better and wouldn't attempt such a foolhardy stunt ...
When the wife and I lived in New Jersey, the neighbors lined up to watch the Californians pull out of their driveway for the first time, in about 10 inches of snow. They all went back indoors, disappointed by the lack of a show ...
Someone up there typed "RPMs" ... How many minutes did you measure those revolutions? It's "RPM" ... the "s" is implied in the "R". Pet peeve.
Sarah, ignore Mark. He's an angry yoof with too much time on his hands.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 22:54 GMT CTG
@Global warming clints
I wondered how long it was going to take for somebody to say "if it's snowing, then global warming can't be happening".
Listen, take a deep breath, wipe the spit from your chin, and then look in a dictionary. Weather is not the same thing as climate. The thing that is changing at the moment is climate, not the weather. AGW does not mean that it will never snow again in Britain. In fact, there's a pretty good chance that the Gulf Stream will get switched off and Britain ends up under several feet of snow for most of the year.
I'm sure even then there will still be people denying the facts in front of their eyes, but what else can you expect from a species that still things digital watches are a pretty neat idea.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 22:54 GMT steogede
@Nigel - Softies?
>> Snarl up's ain't caused by the snow, they're caused by suvvern softies who ain't got a ruddy clue
>> how to drive in it!
Not so much southern softies as southern idiots. I was in the worst of it this morning (anti-clockwise M25 J10-7). The snow was about was about 10 inches deep (not counting drifts, though it hadn't drifted much), with frozen slush underneath fresh snow. Only two lanes were approaching clear (i.e. had snow and ice but you could just about manage 15-20 MPH safely - where the traffic allowed).
The best thing was watching the usual selfish, impatient southerners (mosty in 2WD cars/vans) as they tried overtake the queuing traffic by driving in the deep snow - they best most of them managed was about 50 feet before they started wheel spinning - and then ofcourse the impatient 4WD owners couldn't go anywhere either then which only added to my glee.
Surprisingly (or perhaps not) is that most of the delays were caused by articulated lorries, whose drivers either didn't have the sense go slowly enough to avoid jack-knifing or couldn't manage to work out how to avoid wheel spinning. I was also quite surprised to only see a single accident, however there were a lot of abandoned cars and lorries who had go stuck.
The worst thing of he whole 8 (normally 2) hour journey was when an articulated decided that the 30MPH (temporary speed limit) - that most of us were sticking to in deep slush - wasn't enough and decide to over take myself and a number of over vehicles. He covered us all in thick black slush; even on maximum wipers, I couldn't see a thing for 4-5 seconds (60-75 metres) - all for the sake of him traveling 5MPH faster.
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Monday 2nd February 2009 22:54 GMT John Robson
One wheel drive did quite well
No need for four wheel drive, or has everyone already forgotten about the African Top Gear.
I managed to cycle to work - 10 miles in the snow was fine, my glasses froze up again, but that's OK - I can still see around them.
Amazingly, this afternoon there seemed to a mass exodus from the building when it looked pretty outside, and people sat queuing for 45 minutes to get out onto the roads - meant it was nice and quiet when I left though.
@Perpetual Cyclist - Safer on the road IMHO, I tried a cycle path for about 20 yards, but the council don't think we need grip - so there's no gritting of the cycle paths (even right alongside the road)
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Tuesday 3rd February 2009 02:14 GMT Matt Bradley
Great stuff @Sarah Bee and misc others.
This whole exchange is quite hilarious.
Frankly, I think the whole matter should be settled with a massive snowball fight in Nottingham. Apparently, it is in the MIDLANDS somewhere, so everybody should be able to get there fairly easily. The rail network is very reliable, I hear.
As regards the CLINT in Nottingham: I wrote it, Sarah. It was the only way I could get the word published on the Register... ;)
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Tuesday 3rd February 2009 02:14 GMT Pierre
@ J
"This page is fun, from a Southerner (I mean, South of the freakking Equator, really) perspective. Where we have no snow,[...] Although the "snow debate" is the same here where I live (Richmond, VA USA"
If you are implying that:
-Virginia is in the southern hemisphere
-it doesn't snow in the southern hemisphere,
then my (already low) opinion of the Merkins' geography skills was still an overestimate.
If you're not implying any of the above... waitaminit, there's no way you're not implying at least the second one.
Mine is the one hung on the cross-country skis.
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Tuesday 3rd February 2009 09:52 GMT Mike Hunt
C U next Tuesday
This image was running around the Nottingham City Council intranet until somebody mysteriously pulled the plug....not just on the camera, but the whole system. Ironically it was the same day as the City Council was to announce its "credit crunch" redundancies. Maybe it was a message from the workers to the leader of the council - who knows, but if the cap fits (managed to fit a Northern / Biological reference in as well)
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Tuesday 3rd February 2009 10:10 GMT Anonymous Coward
10 houses and a pub
As a resident of one of the many hamlets such as this near Guildford I can confirm that yesterday was the day when every Landrover and Subaru owner drove around with a smug grin on their face. In my case I drove around sideways, just because. And all the BMW/Mercedes owners discovered the joys of traction control and stability management when there's no traction.
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Tuesday 3rd February 2009 11:56 GMT Mark
@Mat
Uh
QUOTE
J Posted Monday 2nd February 2009 19:27 GMT
Happy
This page is fun, from a Southerner (I mean, South of the freakking Equator, really) perspective. Where we have no snow, and have no clue that them nice people in the UK actually think their land is big enough to be meaningfully divided in "South", "Mid", "North", whatever. Now I know.
Although the "snow debate" is the same here where I live (Richmond, VA USA, not UK)
ENDQUOTE
As Pierre already quoted in his response to J.
As far as I know, there IS no Redmond, VA, Brazil. Do you know of one?
Please try to keep up.
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Tuesday 3rd February 2009 11:56 GMT Anonymous Coward
oh no a snow flake.
That be everyone in bed coz its stoppping them from doing something or other.
Really, you'd think that damn Artic had landed on us.
There are some countries in the world that measure snowfall in feet and still manage to make it to work in the morning.
*\. Grabbing my coat, as a bit of snow wont stick my legs to the ground.
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Tuesday 3rd February 2009 12:29 GMT Anonymous Coward
@ Mycho
Pipex`s call center is in the Phillipines mate, i know this as that was my job before tiscali sold it =]
Also for all the 4x4 drivers - i made it into work with a torqey FWD V6, its hard enough gripping in the dry ;D the snows fun! find an empty carpark and get some handbrake action on the go.
AC incase tiscali hunt me down for exposing their secrets.
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Tuesday 3rd February 2009 14:40 GMT Stuart Castle
Re: Nottingham North
"Last time I checked Nottingham was in the south of England along with Mancester. If you Londers would like to insist that anywhere above the M6 is North why don't you build a moat and be done with it."
Why build a moat? We have the Thames.. And yes, I am a South Londoner and proud of it..
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Tuesday 3rd February 2009 14:40 GMT Anonymous Coward
Snow from Russia
Hold on...from Russia? Erm...we haven't seen any blizzards in recent days and we're between you and Russia...not only that but we're getting your snow later this week...from the south...
...I live in Finland
...look at a bloody map!
Paris...well, why not? Cold, snowy day, log cabin, roaring fire....
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Tuesday 3rd February 2009 15:17 GMT Anonymous Coward
(untited)
Although always embarrassing, I think Boris Johnson hit the nail on the head when he said words to the affect that you have a choice. You can either spend lots of public money on stuff to cope with a few inches of snow, and hardly ever use it, or you can opt to spend the public purse elsewhere, and 'take the hit' when the snow does occasionally fall.
If you are in a part of the world where snow is a common occurrence then of course you invest in the equipment, but otherwise it's not such an easy call.
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