Snow at the window

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! In fact, it’s quite an a-mazing 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 on 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.