The House Husband

And so it snowed again last night, causing havoc throughout the south, including here. This meant Nicktor was unable to go home this morning. With great joy he is staying with me again tonight.

Last night we went down to the Six Bells for, I thought, dinner and some beer. Dinner was a pathetic pork and apple sandwich because Nicktor wasn’t very hungry! The beer was good though. And, of course, the company. It wasn’t a very busy night at the pub so we almost had the place to ourselves.

Nicktor takes great delight in beating me at virtually everything. So we played darts. Of course, my maths is so abysmal, he has to do the adding up, subtracting and scoring. I won the first game! Highly unusual. “Best out of three,” chirps Nicktor, knowing my skills are extremely limited. I won the second game! He went back to the bar to return the darts, his shoulders starting to droop a bit.

He returned to our table with a crib board and cards. Like me, he grew up playing crib (though he doesn’t know the rhymes which help me in the maths) and plays very fast which, sometimes, takes a bit of the fun out of it. He would have loved playing with my grandad who was just as serious. Well…I WON! So, darts, crib…there was a quoits set on a table near us but we didn’t bother.

We sat and watched Eastenders because the barmaid wanted to watch it and we were the only customers by then. When it ended she was generous enough to put the snooker on.

At 10pm she told us she was closing at 10:30 because we were the only ones there. We did think of going outside and trying to tout for business but, instead, as 10:30 rolled around, we went back to the house where Nicktor wanted a cup of tea! Weird. I had a port.

I managed to convince him to watch Pulp Fiction, which I think he liked. Well, most of it. I think it was a bit too wordy for him. We finally went to bed at about 2am.

Tonight we’re back down to the Six Bells for (a real) dinner and beer and then back to watch Sid and Nancy which is far more up his alley.

A bit windy today which is making the snow fall off the trees. This is particularly funny when a poodle is underneath. Blue skies, no more snow, though there was a bit of a flurry late in the day and Mirinda reports light snow in London.

I’ve had quite a concentrated day, staring at philosophy books and trying to make sense of Theodor Adorno and Jacques Derrida, two 20th century philosophers with an inability to write in coherent sentences! Well, coherent to me, anyway. A chap called Buckland isn’t much better with his “Before we can have a philosophy of information, we first need to figure out what we mean by information…” It’s all making me a bit crazy so updating the blog is a welcome relief from it.

My walk into Farnham was much like yesterday though I note, with genuine pleasure, that our council has done a splendid job in salting the footpaths leading into town. From what I could see, the path leading up to the station is still as treacherous as it always is but Hale Road is a nice slushy walk. Pity about the melting icicles creating pools of ice at the doors of some shops but you can’t have everything.

I have noticed a lot of people carrying shovels in their cars. I spotted one driver, slowly progressing along an untreated road who, in trying to turn into a driveway, stopped as the wheels of her car slipped and slid, lacking in any traction. She immediately jumped out of the driver’s side, shovel in hand and started to dig her tyres out of the ice. And very effective she was too. In no time, she’d cleared all her wheels, jumped back in and continued on her way. And she wasn’t the only one. I must have seen at least ten drivers digging themselves free in Castle Street. I should say that in all the advice I’ve heard about travelling in snow (always carry extra clothes, water, food, etc) not once have I seen a shovel mentioned and yet, it’s so obvious when you think about it.

Speaking of shovels, our crazy neighbour was outside this afternoon, clearing the road from the park down to his house – he is two from the end. It looks very odd because the rest of the road is still covered with about five inches of ice. I’m not sure what he did with all the snow. Maybe he’s going to do some more tomorrow and keep going until he has the entire road cleared. Actually, I do know why he’s done it. It’s so cars can turn around without slipping and sliding into the parked cars, our road being a dead end, and all. So, not so crazy. Though I would prefer a sign at the other end saying “Do not park in this street, it is ice-bound and you won’t get out again” seeing as it’s been so nice and quiet this week without them.

And talking of quiet…we haven’t had a postal delivery since Tuesday. Whatever happened to the Royal Mail creed? No matter the weather, the mail must get through! Ha! Oh, how standards have dropped. Whatever happened to people working together against adversity?

Which reminds me of an awful story in the local paper this week. Apparently, a lot of people came home on Wednesday to find their cars covered in snow in the station carpark (as well as the carpark itself) and couldn’t drive home. They must have made their ways home somehow, with the thought of returning for the cars later. Well, first thing Thursday morning, there’s a guy putting tickets on all the windows because their tickets had run out! When asked why (and remember, the ice and snow was still there) he said his employer had told him to do it. What a jobsworth. And the emergency services saying it is dangerous to drive. I hope none of them pay the fines and, instead, go round the boss’s house and paste the tickets to his head.

Oh well, I have rested long enough and must return to Messrs Adorno, Derrida, Floridi and Buckland…

A day of freezing temperatures, increasing the ice on the paths and roads. But no snow. Not here in Surrey, anyway.

Today I walked into Farnham via the main road, to see the state of the footpaths (and because I’m still sore from my slip yesterday) wearing, of course, my Spikeys. Hale Road was all slushy, no doubt from the gritting and salt. The path has also been salted and is pretty easy to walk on until you come across the big slabs of ice every now and then. I saw a few people slipping and sliding. The cars were all driving slowly (very unusual) and there was a lot of people walking (also unusual). The world was strangely peaceful.

I picked up my glasses and went into Starbucks where no-one noticed them. Last week Alex gave me a little book of tickets which give me 50p off each day. Combined with my Starbucks card (which entitles me to free extras) I get a very good deal for a month of coffee. I sat and read some Jeeves then went into Waitrose. It was much more like an ordinary day with people clearly coping with the snow after a few days living with it.

As I left Waitrose I spotted a young mother and two little girls. Each of them was dressed in pink…completely. The girls were both under five. As well as the little pink jackets and little pink trousers, upon their heads were pink, heart-shaped ear muffs! They didn’t look particularly cute. In fact they looked extremely silly. Just the sort of thing a little girl would spot at the point of sale and beg to have. They looked like they cost about £1. All plastic and excessively fluffy. They were all off to the park and each girl held a small sled. And, yes, they were also pink. It did occur to me that the mother had no chance of losing them in the snow.

I used to think we gender dressed our children and that was what explained a girl liking pink and a boy liking blue but I have it on good authority that little girls are quite capable of making their own minds up when it comes to a desire for pink. This is clearly a fashion thing as it hasn’t always been the case. Though the eye piercing shades of pink you see these days have not always been available in such luridness.

I have read a theory that claims that the feminization of the colour pink was due to the Nazis because they made homosexuals wear an inverted pink triangle therefore feminizing it. Historically, in the 1920s gender colours were the other way around. Pink was deemed as more appropriate for boys as it was close to red and girls were encouraged to wear blue because of the Virgin Mary. And then, in the 1940s, for some reason, it switched around. Some people claim that females prefer pink because it reminds them (subconsciously) of ripe fruit and healthy faces. Though I’m not sure why only females would fancy ripe fruit and healthy faces. Some sociologist claims it comes from hunting and gathering and knowing how to spot the ripe fruit.

Whatever the associated preferences, in studies made across cultural groups, most people, regardless of gender, prefer shades of blue to any other colour group. So there. Though personally, my favourite colour is yellow, I think I prefer looking at green. As my grandmother always said, green is the most natural colour, soothing and calm. And, as anyone who has worked at a computer for long stretches knows, if you stop every hour and stare out the window at the trees, your eyes will refocus and not hurt so much at the end of the day.

This gender colour thing is something that has interested me for a while. I like pink and I don’t see why it should be a problem…though, clearly I know it can be. I think it’s a happy, fun colour. Does that make me a girl? I don’t think so! Would I wear a pair of bright pink heart-shaped ear-muffs? Not on your life.

Anyway, the snow has caused Mirinda to stay in town this weekend which means I have no excuse but to complete my essays. So I shall get back to them. But, before I do…here’s my new glasses.

Sorry, mum, I know I need a shave.

PS: In a strange case of coincidence, tonight on QI the entire show was about gender differences and they spent a long time discussing the blue/pink thing! And, even stranger, I never normally watch QI but it was on while I was having tea.

A beautiful blue day with lovely white snow…everywhere. The temperature did not rise above -3ish.

We have been debating about the sense in travelling to Paris tomorrow but the decision has been made for us. This morning I tried to book a taxi but they all refused to take me and the puppies to the boarding kennel – it’s down a very minor road and apparently has already trapped a few drivers. And then, Eurostar managed to get another train stuck in the Chunnel. They made an announcement on their site that people who didn’t really have to travel could claim a refund if they cancelled. The gods clearly do not want us to go to France this weekend. So we’re not.

Meanwhile, Mirinda is stuck in London. The trains are a bit unreliable (SWT seems to have mislaid a few) and the footpaths down here are lethal. The immediate plan is for her to stay in the flat until it is safe to return home. So…rather than Paris, she is having a holiday in London. As for me…well I’ll just work on my essays until they’re finished.

I had a rather slippery walk into Farnham today. In fact I fell over twice. Once onto hard ice (and I’m still feeling the pain in my hip) and once into a snow drift (which just made me look silly in front of a bunch of laughing kids). A few more shops were open (including Starbucks) and a few more people were around but mostly families with sleds heading for the park. The big slope at the Castle end of the park has become a black ski run and it’s important that walkers keep a watchful eye out for uncontrollable bin lids holding screaming children.

It took me an age to get back to the house and just as I did my mobile rang. It was the optometrist saying my glasses were ready. They are next door to Starbucks! I’m clearly having better luck than my father but not quite good enough to have them call me when I’m there. Still…mustn’t complain. A week is pretty good. Particularly given the weather. So tomorrow I shall have a whole new look!

It’s amazing but no car has driven down our street now for three days! There’s still nearly a foot of snow on it, criss-crossed all helter skelter with various sized footprints. So nice and quiet.

I woke up to 7.5″ of snow this morning. I opened the back door to let the poodles out and Day-z disappeared. She resurfaced covered in snow, looking a bit shocked. She then ran around like a lunatic. She normally does this in the morning but not with white stuff sticking to her fur. The snow didn’t stop falling all day but generally just a light dusting. The temperature didn’t rise above zero.

My first task for the day was to shovel out a path for the dogs to run up and down. While snow is obviously easy to dig, I can see why they use plastic shovels for it. It just sticks to metal. I also made some newspaper areas for bird feed, which meant we had most of the birds from Farnham Park feeding in our garden all day.

I couldn’t take the poodles for a walk. They wouldn’t have made it up the street, let alone into the park so, having dug the path, I wandered into Farnham at about 8:30 for supplies (and to have a sticky around). I say wandered but shuffled would be more accurate. The going was tough. A well trodden channel had been started in the centre of where the path normally was and it was generally an excellent idea to follow this. Treading either side could mean snow in the boots as you sank into the drift.

Waitrose was virtually empty – there were about three customers and five staff members – and I was in and out in about 10 minutes. Starbucks was closed so I forced into Costa’s for my morning coffee. From my seat inside I watched the normally busy West Street. Traffic was minimal outside and the little there was, was moving very, very slowly. A steady stream of customers came and went, most of them explaining to their bosses why they couldn’t make it into work on their phones.

I wandered down to St Andrews for some photographs. The church always looks marvellous after a generous dusting of snow and William Cobbett’s tabletop tomb looked nice and cosy beneath it’s own white blanket. As he lived during the Little Ice Age, I’m sure he saw a lot more snow in Farnham than I’ll ever see.

Wandering back home, the park was alive with kids on sleds, or makeshift platforms of plastic and cardboard pretending to be sleds, squealing and shrieking with joy.

Standing in my back garden in the afternoon I could hear nothing except the delightful squeals of the children in the park, clearly still enjoying the snow, courtesy of the closed schools. According to Mirinda, if you stand in the back garden in the afternoon, all you can hear is the roar of the traffic from the A31. Well not today! I doubt there was much traffic anywhere in Surrey.

Tweetdeck was full of weather watch type tweets, with people posting pictures of snowmen, snowfall measurements and stranded Christmas trees. And there’s been an almost constant barrage of tweets about either having to go to work or having to stay at home. There has been a LOT of snow so I guess people would be more vocal than usual.

I called Mirinda at the flat and we discussed the logic of still going to Paris. sadly the train tickets are non-refundable and non-exchangeable so, unless the train is cancelled (unlikely) we will lose the fares. We can cancel the hotel without a problem so we shall wait and see what tomorrow brings. In the meantime, spare a thought for the little chap below, caught mid rung as the snow fell today.

Santa gets caught without his reindeer

I was lucky enough to be walking the poodles in the park as the sun came up this morning. Ok, that’s at 7:50 this time of year but it looked fantastic. Streaky red light breaking through dark snow clouds. And very cold. The first clouds we’ve seen for days. All year, in fact. The forecast is for heavy snow tonight.

I had an unscheduled trip into London today due to the fact that Mirinda forgot her mobile phone yesterday. She was working from the flat so we decided to have lunch together. I popped into Woking on the way for some new jeans and shoes. Given the way I shop, this took about half an hour, all up. And included a coffee at Starbucks. It’s odd having to remember my order – they just know what I have in Farnham.

On the train from Woking to Waterloo, groups of people with suitcases were joyously watching out the window as the London Eye appeared in the distance. They were all so excited, I realised it is important not to get to blasè about how lovely the capitol can look. You should enjoy it through another’s eyes on occasion, just to remember. It brings a childish joy so often missed.

The city looked lovely from my empty bus though crowded and the 20 minute trip seemed to take forever. Particularly around St Paul’s with the hordes of photo snapping tourists lining the footpaths and straying onto the road. I arrived at the flat dead on the scheduled time, courtesy of London transport.

We had lunch in the Fox and Anchor, a lovely pub not far from the flat. I recommend the Adnam’s they served for a croaky throat. It was rather thick and porter-ish with a lovely syrupy consistency. I could almost speak again. I can also vouch for the Cumberland sausage and mash, which was delicious. In fact, sitting here many hours later, I am still full of them and in no need of any further food.

After lunch we had a lovely walk around the Barbican. Mirinda has to work at the Business School once a week and it’s much nicer roaming the overhead walkways than going along the streets. It’s a maze of them! It’s quite an amazing place. Sort of like a little city inside a bigger one. A matreshka city!

We checked out the remains of the medieval city wall and the Roman one. We looked at the ruins of a church and wandered some more. The Barbican houses around 4,000 people! It has green spaces, fountains, shops, a theatre complex, the Museum of London…it’s incredible. It was built over 40 acres of land which was flattened during WWII. The Queen opened it in 1982.

Having found our way around the place (to a certain extent) we wandered back to the flat where I bid my wife goodbye and set off for home. I quite fancied this photo out of the bus window on the way back to Waterloo.

From inside a moving London bus - route 4

All day there has been dire warnings of a heavy snowfall throughout the south east sometime this evening and so I was eager to avoid it before getting home. And I was. Very lucky. At 6pm it started. I was sitting in the study working on an essay and, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something out of the window (it was dark outside) and then something else. They were snowflakes. By 7:30 we had over 2″ of snow in our back garden. The poodles loved it. It eased off a bit so we popped outside so they could frolic in it…as they do! It is now 8.30 and it is falling again. I know a lot of people hate it and are bemoaning the traffic conditions but I think it’s fantastic.

We had a lovely flurry of snow this afternoon which nicely topped up the remains from the other day.  We walked the dogs in the early evening glow and the park was a wasteland of white and sleety snow.  Oddly attractive and frightfully cold!

We’re not far from Basingstoke or Reading.  In fact it’s 25 & 30 miles respectively.  They are both just beyond the M3.  While we were enjoying our little white-out Mcflurry of a blizzard, both Basingstoke and Reading were under siege.  Sort of.  People were stuck in their cars with but a few drops of water and little in the way of food, ignoring the small squares of carpet which would hold a fair few crumbs of…something.

One of the people I follow on Twitter was somewhat distressed as her 81 year old step-father left to go shopping at 1pm for an hour and didn’t get back until after 10pm.  He had been stuck in traffic without a mobile phone (apparently he always leaves it at home…) and ended up walking up the steepest hill in Berkshire to get back to his wife.  One presumes he was a bit chilly!

His wife, meantime, had been stuck in a house with no boiler (it having blown up because of the freezing water), no electricity (it went off shortly after the boiler) and without knowing what was happening to her husband.

While washing up, I was listening to 5 Live (I do this whenever Radio 4 gets a bit dull – not often) and there were cries of distress coming from all along the M4 and surrounding roads as listeners rang in just to talk to another human being.  Most people were displaying a bit of the old blitz spirit, while the DJ tried to get them to blame someone for their predicament.  He didn’t mean god!  I think he wanted them to blame the council for not gritting.  But they disappointed him, I’m happy to say.  Most were just resigned.

Mirinda was supposed to go to her book club this afternoon.  I scraped Sidney clear of her blanket of snow and asked Mirinda if she was sure.  It wasn’t snowing but the sleet was being a pain.  She figured it would be ok.  About an hour and a half later I heard her come back in.  Apparently the further south she drove, the worse the weather was and the less visibility available.  Wisely, she had turned back.  I dread to think what would have happened had she continued on her way.

PS:  I decided to try making stollen again today, for the third time.  I told Mirinda if it didn’t work this time I was NEVER making it again.  Guess what?  I’m NEVER MAKING IT AGAIN!

It snowed a bit last night. The home counties, but more in Kent, were given a thick blanket of it in the early hours.   So I woke up to a lovely wintry scene.  Day-z keeps going out in it but Carmen thinks it’s not worth her while.  Here’s the view from the study window.

snowy garden

The birds are scrabbling around the feeders, trying to clear the snow.  One of them has a mini-snow plough and the others are cheering him on.  Oops!  He just drove off the edge of the bird table.  Good job he can fly.

I was going to attend the second week of presentations at uni today (my group presented last week but we were asked to support the other half of the class) but the news has advised not to go out unless you really, really have to.  I guess that leaves me stuck at home until Mirinda comes home and I go up to the station to meet her.

Yesterday I had a session at the Farnham and Alton Talking Newspaper.  For those that don’t know, it’s a charity that records the local paper onto a disc then sends it out to the visually impaired, free of charge.  There’s a small recording studio and lots of hi-tech equipment, located in a pretty grim housing estate.  Well, grim for Farnham.

There’s always three readers and an engineer and we take turns reading bits from the paper that we’ve edited.  It’s always fun and I never seem to see the same person twice!  Yesterday I was reading with Di, an ex-school teacher of English.  And I thought I was a stickler for language.  Di is worse!  She groans as she edits, despairing over the poor English she will have to read.  The other two readers kept telling her to chill out but she refused to be silenced.  Inside, I was cheering her on.  Whenever I edit, I make a few grammatical changes so I don’t sound like an idiot!

It was a slippery walk home afterwards (at about 6pm) and, a few hours later the snow started.  I don’t care what anyone says, I love the snow!