It is tough NOW. So how are we coping

Sylvan

kittie wrote: »

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/4423919/Snow-and-freezing-weather-threaten-to-shut-down-Britain.html

Yes, but look at the paltry amounts they're expecting! What a storm in a teacup:rotfl:
(Now where did I put those tealights and jamjars?)

"It is the first time that such extensive snowfall has been forecast in one night across Britain since the night of Feb 7 1991... "

Gosh that date sounds familiar!
I think that may well have been the day my line manager (a recent immigrant from Down South) refused to let me go home when the warning telephone call came - though he had to give in 15 minutes later, when word came down from "on high" - and that extra 15 minutes meant that when the idiot man in front of me abandoned his car just before the last summit of my journey (with an empty promise to send help back) we (3 young children and a small, heavily pregnant woman) were stuck in the middle of nowhere in a blizzard:eek:

EDIT: :rotfl:Couldn't agree more mardatha - we had 4 or 5 feet of snow a couple of years ago (The school rang at 2pm to say they were sending the kids home but they didn't arrive till 6.30 - the taxis had to wait just below the summit ["highest classified road in England"] for a snowplough and then 3 came along at once:rolleyes:). It lay for over a week but our neighbour went out with his tractor and ploughed our track on the 2nd day and they were back at school the day after that. Those southerners don't know they're born.;)

Sunflower, why don't you manufacture one? Our kids used to enjoy them so much they asked us if we could do it ourselves one Christmas - so we turned off the TV and lights and played Monopoly by candlelight in front of the fire. (Do you have a toasting fork? They're great fun.)

mardatha

yes we have a brass toasting fork that hangs beside the fire

Sylvan

You're all set then:D

The tealights are in one of the boxes we haven't unpacked yet (probably at the bottom of the stack) so I've left a "Tropical Fruit" scented candle out in front of their flasks. If they do get stuck on the fells overnight I hope the enticing smell doesn't make them too hungry:p

mardatha

We arent supposed to get snow but we got it anyway. Only about 4" so far but keeps going off and on. I feel left out here because I'm not all excited and staying up all night to take pics or sliding doon the road on a binbag. I must be getting old...

nesssie1702

Why does the country seem to grind to a halt when there's a little bit of snow? Is it because people don't know how to drive in snowy conditions? I used to have to get myself 15 miles to work in the Aberdeen area and frequently did it when there was at least a foot of snow. I always remember getting told "Don't use first gear, use the higher gears, otherwise the car won't go anywhere"

It's little wonder that other countries can't understand what's going on here because of up to 4 inches of the stuff?!

elona

We have snow here and DD(15) found out at 7.30a.m. that her school was closed!!!

I convinced DH not to go out in the car and have just cooked us all a late breakfast.

Pleased I got a load of shopping done over the last couple of days and have meat, eggs, cheese and fresh veg that should last for ages.

Might go to the library later to return books as it is just across the road but will see how I feel. If it is still snowing heavily then I am staying home.

We have a torch that charges on an electrical plug so have put that on to recharge just in case and have a gas hob as well as electric oven in case power is affected.

red_devil

id rather not walk in it scared of slipping over.

Charis

elizabunny wrote: »

Charis -I am loving reading this. I started about a week ago and now I'm around half way through. When I go to bed at night I thank God that at least we're not running for the 'Anderson Shelters' or waking up to find the plaster hanging off the walls and the windows blown out -I cannot even begin to imagine what this was like. To have that noise over your head night after night, to live each day with all that uncertainty and fear. Yet as you so rightly say, people do survive and keeping positive is important.

I'm sure many of you have already read this book, but I can recommend it if you haven't. It certainly made me re-evaluate my situation.

What makes it all the more vivid for me is that my mother, aunt and grandmother lived in the east end of London during the whole war. I heard all about living through air raids during my childhood but Nella brings it alive. My late DH was older than me and I discovered via the book that he was born on the day Holland was occupied.

Nella really brings home the feeling of losing the young men to war doesn't she? If she was alive today she'd fit right into the OS thread. Always 'dodging' as she called it (making the money go round, finding substitutes) and always 'making do'. One thing that struck me, and her husband commented on it too, was how much more positive, healthy and alive she became when working for the WVS. So busy focusing on what she could do to help others that her own health improved as a result.

elizabunny

Charis wrote: »

What makes it all the more vivid for me is that my mother, aunt and grandmother lived in the east end of London during the whole war. I heard all about living through air raids during my childhood but Nella brings it alive. My late DH was older than me and I discovered via the book that he was born on the day Holland was occupied.

Like you Charis, I heard all about what it was like to live through the war from my parents. Mum, her sisters and brother and my grandparents were living in Dorset at the time war broke out. Mum recounted many stories to us of what it was like for her and how my grandparents had two little brothers from London come to live with them during that time. Again, I wonder how people would cope today if they were told that their children had to go away from them to be in a safer place, or if we found ourselves having to take in children that we have never met before from another part of the country. My late Dad was in the Army -went in when he was 18 and met and married Mum while still a soldier. Times must have been very tough for them and I sometimes think, I don't know I'm born -I'm so lucky.

Of course we don't want those terrible times to happen again, but I do agree, from what I have been told and also what I have read, there was a great sense of communities pulling together, of people feeling useful and fulfilled because they were able to contribute in some way. Also, despite everything, there were times of great happiness. When Mum and Dad married, all their friends and neighbours rallied round and saved their ration coupons so that they could help them with bits for their wedding.

If it could be done then, it can be done now. I think whatever faces us now or in the future, people will find the strength they need to carry on, get through it and make the best of every day and every thing they have.

mardatha

I first read Nella Last many years ago when I was not keeping well and in a job I hated. (night shift in a woollen mill). That book picked me up and kept me going through a bad patch, and I just recently found one on amazon and bought it, and read it again.
I thought if those women then could work a long shift in a horrible factory, and then face queues for food, and then not even know if their houses would stil be standing when they went home in the morning - then I could cope easily. And I did. LOL