It's snowing!

[Mrs Pingu]

Ah balls, I cleared all the sno off the car last night (cos it's not moved since it started), and what did it do overnight? Dump about 3 inches, and it's tipping down again now.
I wonder if we'll make it to my mum's for xmas......

[andrewc]

A little bit of snow this morning, but we've got a big storm coming in over the Mersey.  A good lightning display.

[Andrew Br]

We had a few cm overnight in Manchester and it's snowing quite hard again now.
I don't think that I'll go out to play on the bike- there's not enough snow on the ice to provide traction.
A walk on the other hand...............

[nuttycyclist]

No more snow.  Last night's rain didn't melt it to anything more than slush.

It re-froze last night.


I fell off on the ice this morning 

[clarion]

Hope you bounced OK

[nuttycyclist]

Yeah.  I like don't mind falling on ice.  It's nice and slow, you slide for ages before stopping, you don't lose any skin.

Then you have to crawl along the road pushing the bike until you can get to somewhere grippy enough to stand up.

[Pingu]

Fair bit of snow here in Aberdeen today. I managed to cycle to work OK, but I think I'll be walking most of the way home. Mrs P has been sent home from work and it's taken over an hour to drive a couple of miles 

[Greenbank]

Poor weather means Sainsbury's have cancelled the delivery they were due to make here this afternoon. Today was the last delivery I could get before the festivities.

They just phoned to cancel ours scheduled for this evening, including ours Christmas turkey. Oh well, might wander into town to see what I can pick up and do the rest of the shopping over the next couple of days.

[Chris S]

The Amazon Pixies are clearly made of sterner stuff. I ordered a bunch of stuff from Amazon yesterday - it arrived by 10am this morning. Though it has to be said, Santa's Elf driving the van was a miserable f*cker who complained continuously the whole time I was filling in delivery forms.

There was a bit of a thaw last night - it was pouring with rain at 1am when I had a sleepless attack - but it has frozen hard again now, so the lane is mess of frozen slush, frozen puddles, all on top of about 3" of compacted snow. Nice.

[Wowbagger]

Yeah.  I like don't mind falling on ice.  It's nice and slow, you slide for ages before stopping, you don't lose any skin.

Then you have to crawl along the road pushing the bike until you can get to somewhere grippy enough to stand up.

The last time I fell on ice it was mega-rapid. I think it must have been after the heavy fall of December 1981, at the junction of Royston Ave & Bournemouth Park Road.

I could see the ice ahead, or at least, some of it, and took it very gently but there wasn't even time to put a foot down. I landed on my left hip with a bang and nursed a large bruise for a couple of weeks afterwards.

[her_welshness]

I left later today because I could not be arsed to travel with the main car commuters. As I went down to the corridor to collect my bike this morning, the chain had completely rusted due to that morass of snow and ice that I ploughed it through last night. A quick squeeze of 'finishing line' and Bob's your uncle, it was good to go The roads today were in good order which was a relief.

[Mr Larrington]

Yeah.  I like don't mind falling on ice.  It's nice and slow, you slide for ages before stopping, you don't lose any skin.

Then you have to crawl along the road pushing the bike until you can get to somewhere grippy enough to stand up.

Unless you manage to land in such a way that your brand-new left crank gets bent to the extent that you can no longer pedal a full revolution because it fouls the chainstay, and you are five miles from home with a bruise the size and shape of Greater Manchester on your hip.

Welcome to Christmas Day, 1985-stylee

[TimO]

They just phoned to cancel ours scheduled for this evening, including ours Christmas turkey. ...

So that'll be a Corned Beef Roast for Christmas then?

On the way back from the cattery delivery run, I popped into Sainsburys to grab a few items I needed and fill the car with petrol for the long run home tomorrow.  I gave up looking for a parking space almost immediately, and it took me ten minutes of queueing to get some petrol, so good luck with finding a Turkey or something in a similar vein.

I think Sainsburys is actually only closed for Christmas Day, so why do people seem to leave pushing a couple of trolleys worth of stuff to their cars.

I'm going to walk back after lunch to get what I need.  I suspect the round trip walk will be faster than however long waiting for a parking space would have taken.

The snow on the paths and roads has gone to slushy rather than solid ice, which is good if a little mucky.  Even though we got snowed on again yesterday, I think the temperature has risen enough that the ice is melting (fingers crossed that this continues through to tomorrow).

[Pancho]

Well, we had torrential rain yesterday and then it was back to glorious south coast sunshine. No snow here. I'm still jealous.

However, we do have to drive up into the South Downs tomorrow to collect a turkey[1] so I'm hoping it's sunny up there as well.

[1] Hand raised by my daughter on the school farm. Hence the non-local food.

[Wowbagger]

It's a lovely sunny day here, and I've just checked our water tank: solar gain has increased the water temperature from 11.4°C in the bottom of the tank to 20°C and rising in the top.

Sadly, before the sun goes down, next door's chimney will cast a shadow over the PV cell that drives the pump, and that will be that. Even so, that amount of warmth makes a big dent in the amount of leccy needed for a 30° wash.

[Valiant]

Amazing ride in today, clear roads, the lights turnt green as I approached, the sun was shining. Set a new PB! About 3 and a half minutes lol, pretty much just sprinted all the way

I'm happy with that.

[Mrs Pingu]

Mrs P has been sent home from work and it's taken over an hour to drive a couple of miles  

I hasten to add that I scammed a lift, I wasn't driving. (I doubt I could have got the car out of the road even if I'd wanted to...) 

[Greenbank]

They just phoned to cancel ours scheduled for this evening, including ours Christmas turkey. ...

So that'll be a Corned Beef Roast for Christmas then?

Phoned up, complained and it's rescheduled for tomorrow afternoon (hopefully). Today was the last day of scheduled deliveries, they kept the next couple of days free as contingency (which is nice). The elderly and housebound are getting priority, but we're near the top of the list after them (for vairous reasons).

[Bledlow]

Colleague at work with the TT didn't pay enough attention when I said "severe weather warning" and he didn't leave until 7pm, and lives 40 miles away.  Aww.

Schadenfreude time!

[scott]

Bike lane (n) 1. snow storage area

Sidewalk (n) 1. see BIKE LANE

I wish I had better pictures from this morning's ride to work, but where the snow was fun, I was too busy enjoying the ride. And where the snow *wasn't* fun, the car-travel lanes were clear and I had to keep pulling off onto plow banks (former bike lanes) to avoid causing massive traffic jams behind me.

[Adam]

Well on top of the gas being off since Saturday afternoon, the electricity went off at 8 pm yesterday. 

Good job I always keep loads of charged up batteries around - lots of light thanks to my Hopes. 

I ended up getting the camping stove out.  Fortunately I'd put the immersion heater on some time before the power went off, so there was still hot water for everyone.  And then we had about another 14 cm of snow overnight, so this morning even though I couldn't get out on the bike (due to the roads looking like Scott's second picture above), I was kept nice & warm clearing snow off the pavement

Eventually we got gas & electricity back at around 11 am. 

I am very envious of those with a wood burning stove.

[Chris S]

I am very envious of those with a wood burning stove.

Well, they help to keep you warm for sure.

I have a boiler on mine which contributes to the thermal store - a 300ltr heat bank. However, there is a problem even with that set-up. The hot water is mains cold that is heated by passing it through a heat exchanger. The heat exchanger only works when there is electricity to power a pump to rotate hot water through it.

So I have to have a genny on the go when the power is out, in order to have hot water.

Nothing is perfect I guess - and my genny has got more chance of powering a 200W pump than it has a 2500W Immersion .

[Rig of Jarkness]

We have just enough to make the place look pretty...

[hellymedic]

They just phoned to cancel ours scheduled for this evening, including ours Christmas turkey. ...

So that'll be a Corned Beef Roast for Christmas then?

Phoned up, complained and it's rescheduled for tomorrow afternoon (hopefully). Today was the last day of scheduled deliveries, they kept the next couple of days free as contingency (which is nice). The elderly and housebound are getting priority, but we're near the top of the list after them (for vairous reasons).

They have not contacted me. I am housebound. I don't think any other deliveries are available until next Monday

I might just transfer my custom elsewhere.  I am not impressed with the way they've handled this.

[Bledlow]

I am very envious of those with a wood burning stove.

We just have open fireplaces in some rooms, courtesy of a builder in the 1880s. Mrs B is currently sitting in bed reading BBC Wildlife while some yew burns gently on the other side of the bedroom. I'll join her in a little while.