Moonwalk training cancelled due to snow – first published 18 January 2013

They say the best laid plans… I knew there was likely to be snow for my Friday walk so I made plans. In fact I spent the whole evening planning out a walk that would be good if it did snow. Of course I wasn’t really expecting more than a light dusting because that’s all we ever get. When I woke up to a blizzard on 18 January 2013 though, all my plans went out of the window.

18 January 2013

So, last night I spent a while planning a good walking route for the snow. Well, it looked like a good route anyway, who can tell until you actually walk it? The WalkJogRun ap is great for plotting walks and finding new possibilities but sometimes you find you’ve got it wrong, a path is hillier than expected, a cutway turns out to be blocked off, the pavements are, inexplicably, not there or the going is muddier, slippier, bumpier or harder to find than the maps lead you to believe. Things look very different on the ground to that little satellite picture on the screen, no matter how much you zoom in. Pity you can’t do it on Google Street View, mind you that would only work on the roads anyway and I like to stay off road where I can. Maybe someone should pay me to walk round with a video camera and map all the off road bits, I’d quite enjoy it. Think of all the getting lost I could do.

There was a definite hunger thing going on yesterday evening but I satisfied it with drinks instead of chocolate. Probably not the best of plans in the evening because I kept getting up to go to the loo in the night, still I suppose all that getting out of bed and stumbling to the loo in the dark is exercise. One of the joys of being female is not needing to turn the light on to have a wee in the night. Lets face it there aren’t that many advantages so I like to make the most of them.

Keeping the lights off means I can manage to get up, walk down the hall, go to the loo, wash my hands and get back to bed while still more or less asleep. I’ve spent years perfecting the art. Sometimes Commando’s love of leaving things in stupid places causes me a few problems though. He gets the storage boxes out of his wardrobe and leaves them in the middle of the bedroom floor or leaves a bucket of water on the landing because he hasn’t quite finished the upstairs cleaning, along with the odd pile of clothes or the Dyson it can be an obstacle course. It’s a wonder I haven’t broken my neck. Then again maybe he has me well insured, who knows?

When I woke up there was a rather unwelcome surprise in the form of snow. Right, it wasn’t exactly a surprise, I’d expected to wake to some white stuff (possibly) and have a slippery walk on the route I’d so carefully planned. What I actually woke to, apart from Commando crashing around the bedroom with a torch looking for something, was the blasted stuff still falling. And falling. While I ate my granola it got worse and worse. Walking on snow with my Yak Trax is one thing but doing it while it’s still snowing and there’s a chance I might get stranded somewhere doesn’t sound like much fun to me. The walk was off. Grrrr. This is most definitely not an excuse, I really was bitterly disappointed. It was like a blizzard.

After getting up so early and looking forward to a snowy walk, or at least a walk of some kind, I ended up sitting in my pyjamas and furry slippers looking out at the snow falling, and falling and getting heavier. Then I got cross with myself for wasting the morning so I put together a shopping list, got showered and dressed. Then I procrastinated on the going out and getting cold for a bit by checking out Facebook to see all the snow photos. Apparently all the busses in Southampton had been ordered back to the depot because they were slipping backwards down the Big Hill, which didn’t make me feel great about walking up there to be honest. Getting squished by a bus or a random stranger in a car isn’t exactly high on my list of must do things.

Just as I was about to get my boots on Mini Commando came back. He’d walked all the way to town (no busses) and found his course had been cancelled. Understandably, he didn’t want to go straight back out to help me with the shopping so we had a coffee and I did a bit more Facebook checking. Poor Mr Bumble is meant to be flying home today but she may be stranded in Florida (poor thing, stuck in eighty degree heat, my heart bleeds). Even Southampton Airport is closed so there’s not much hope for Gatwick or Heathrow. Despite all her disasters getting to the airport, and probably a few more getting home by the looks of it, she had a wonderful time, did both marathons regardless of the heat and got three medals. She really is a legend. Hope she manages to get home safely.

The walk up the Big Hill was an adventure to say the least. Because of the Yak Trax I had no trouble at all with slipping, even on the steepest part of the hill. The scary part was all the traffic. As soon as we turned the corner onto the main road we could see abandoned vehicles, one was even sitting on the central reservation. Most of the cars that were actually still moving, in what was rapidly turning into a car park, were crawling along but some weren’t. What is wrong with people? Ok so they weren’t doing the normal fifty in a thirty zone but they were still going way too fast for the conditions. Take note (especially if you’re the driver of the black Audi), the slower you are going the less damage you’re going to do when you skid off the road and hit someone! Mini Commando and I were on edge, prepared to jump out of the way if something started skidding towards us.

We did see a bus coming down the hill at about walking pace with a ‘not in service’ sign, obviously going back to the depot. We also had to negotiate a gate, complete with brick gate post, lying across the pavement, testament to the fact that not everything was staying strictly on the road, although, in fairness, it was probably someone trying to get out of their driveway. The steep part of the hill was even worse. About half way up there was a bus skewed across the road with a car in front of it half on the pavement and a worried knot of people standing about. More abandoned cars lined the other side of the road facing in various directions. What a relief to get to the top and away from the traffic.

At first I thought the butchers was closed but they just had their door shut to keep the snow and cold out. Then it was across the precinct to Sainsbury’s. This was the point I found out you can’t walk on shop floors in Yak Trax so I had to stop to take them off. At least there was still food in the shops, I’d seen film of empty supermarket shelves on the news this morning. Maybe the panic buying hasn’t reached my little village yet.

Then, with our bags of shopping on our shoulders, we had to get back down the Big Hill. This was worse than going up because the cars were coming from behind us. We spent most of the time stopping and turning round every time were heard something coming and I didn’t feel safe until we turned the corner into The Crescent. Adventure over for the time being anyway.

As I couldn’t go for a proper walk I had a bit of a tour of the garden to see what the damage was. For a start my little stone Buddha doorstop didn’t look too pleased but I think he’ll survive. The herb tub is another story, the garlic chives and chives that were starting to come up are now covered with a thick blanket of snow. I’m pretty sure they’re not going to like that much. I can only hope they’ll recover once it thaws. The palm fronds are weighed down with the stuff, which is not what they’re designed for but, although I may lose some leaves, it’s come through far worse so I’m not too worried. I actually sheltered under it for a while when the blizzard got a bit too much.

At the front of the house a rash of snowmen have appeared outside gates. I was tempted to make one myself but my hands were a bit cold so I just admired everyone else’s work. The one with the bunny ears was my favourite. All I could hear out there was the sound of laughing children and, at the top of the Little Hill, there were children on sleds with a death wish. I didn’t go up to have a look but there were photos on Gigi’s Face Book page. Hopefully none of them will end up embedded in the front wall of my house before the day is done.