This Week I……

Hello! Well, that was an interesting week wasn’t it?

Half the country were blanketed in 2 feet of snow, which left people unable to leave their houses, stranded in their cars and caused multiple deaths. The other half, however, that only had an inch of snow, spent the week complaining about what a bunch of (if you’ll excuse the pun) snowflakes people were these days and they weren’t going to let a little bit of snow stop them getting to their vitally important marketing meeting.

Today, in Norwich at least, the thaw is underway. The sun is shining and it’s a whole SEVEN DEGREES outside. I can hear the melting snow trickling off rooves and there are areas where pavement is actually visible. I am very pleased about this because although a couple of snow days can be fun, this week has been a little bit of hard work and I could really do with getting back to normal life tomorrow.

Today is going to involve heading out for lunch, stocking up on all the things I couldn’t get when I couldn’t get to the shops, and a nice cup of tea.

But first up, this week I…….

Had a Picnic in the Cold

This, of course, was before I knew what cold REALLY was. Last week I mentioned that we were off to do LOTS of driving to head to Aberdeen.

Part way up we decided to stop at a country park called Kinnoul Hill in Perth to walk the pugs. We bought pork pies and ginger beer from a farm shop and stopped on a picnic bench for a slightly chilly picnic with a view over Perth.

I said I was cold. I knew NOTHING.

Lost a Pug

The purpose of our trip was to spend a couple of days with Mr LLL Mum & Dad in Aberdeen. Our first day there was Monday, and it was a beautiful, sunny, clear day.

We took the dogs for a walk around a big park, then went home and spent some time playing fetch in the garden with the Pugs and Nelly, the resident dog. More accurately, Nelly played fetch, and the Pugs chased her around.

I went back inside and Mr LLL Mum made a cup of coffee. Peppa and Waldo were pottering around the kitchen and the back door was open as the weather was so lovely.

Mr LLL popped back in for his coffee, and then we realised that we couldn’t see Waldo. I wasn’t worried, there wasn’t really anywhere he could go. Mr LLL parents live in a cottage miles from anywhere. The garden is secure, but even if he got out he’d be bored and have to sit down for a nap before he got anywhere dangerous.

I expected him to come running back from whatever he was sniffing the minute we whistled.

But he didn’t.

We looked upstairs, we looked outside, we looked in the outhouses and sheds. I tipped over into panic and started running around the garden in my slippers shouting and checking ponds in case he’d fallen in.

I was terrified, and also completely bemused as to where he could possibly be.

Then Mr LLL found him in the larder. His Mum had gone in to get coffee and accidentally locked him in behind her. He was completely happy and unperturbed by his adventures (possibly because that was the cupboard where his food was kept) and a little bemused as to why he was suddenly getting so much attention.

That was a bit too much excitement for one day.

Got bitten by the Beast

And here it starts……

On Monday night, while we were enjoying glorious sunshine in Aberdeenshire we started to see people talking about snow on social media, and news reports about the “Beast from the East” setting in this week.

We were a little perturbed, especially as getting snowed in is a real possibility in the area where Mr LLL Mum & Dad live. They are prepared for it with frozen food and plenty of supplies, but we needed to be back home by the end of the week for work.

On Tuesday morning we awoke to a light dusting of snow, and after consulting the weather forecast we decided it was wise to head off immediately, as the serious weather was due to set in the next day.

We drove back down to Dumfries to stay overnight. There was only a light dusting of beautiful snow, but we were hearing reports that it was pretty hairy on the east coast.

Our initial plan was to try and make it the whole 315 miles back to Norwich on the second day. A long day, but would get us home before the weather. But as we drove out of Dumfries on frankly terrifying roads at 30 miles an hour we knew that wasn’t going to happen.

We stuck to the west coast where the weather was better and booked another night in a hotel in Birmingham.

Fortunately, the weather in the east was starting to ease by Thursday, and although the roads were still icy, the snow had stopped falling, and we finally made it home ok.

We made the right choice. On Wednesday when we were due to leave the road we would have been on was rendered impassable, with some people stranded in their cars for over 16 hours. Mr LLL Mum & Dad are still snowed in now, so if we hadn’t left we’d still be there.

It was still completely exhausting, over the week we spent a total of 33 hours in a car, and spent probably the cost of a package holiday somewhere hot on hotel rooms, “deep cleaning” supplements (per dog!) so the pugs could stay, and hotel meals. Plus, we only got to spend one day with Mr LLL family which was very disappointing.

Over all, the Beast from the East can bugger off, frankly.

Ran out of bread and milk

As if it add insult to injury, Sainsburys cancelled the order we had carefully placed so that we would have hot food and milk for coffee when we got back.

We arrived home to pretty bare cupboards, and the half pint of milk we’d left in the fridge a week previously.

This is fine, I thought. We have food in the freezer and a Co-Op at the end of the road.

The Co-Op was completely sold out of both bread and milk, though in true middle-class style I could still get a carton of Cashew milk and a loaf of sourdough if I so desired. Obviously.

We soldiered on with our last remaining dregs of milk, till I finally managed to locate some in a small corner shop near our house, plus, GASP, the last loaf of sliced bread.

Built a Snowman (and lied about it)

After more snow on Friday night, and the cancellation of my Saturday training, we took the Pugs for a snowy lunchtime Saturday walk to the park.

It was completely empty. We ran around in the snow, Mr LLL built a snow dog, and I started building a snowman.

As I was finishing off his head another couple arrived in the park with a dog that bounded over with great joy to say hello and knocked Mr LLL snow dog over. The couple laughed. “HAHAHAHAH, I hope that wasn’t YOUR snowman”, they said, in a tone that suggested, of COURSE, it wasn’t our snowman, as we were grown-ups.

GROWN-UPS DON’T BUILD SNOWMEN.

“HAHAHAHAHAHA!”, I said. “I think it was a snow dog”. In a tone that I hoped suggested that it obviously wasn’t OUR snowdog, because we’re GROWN-UPS, without actually outright lying.

It was totally our snowman.

And that was how the Beast from the East worked out for me.

How was your week? Did you get bitten by the Beast?