So we got it...

...the snow that is.

We've been lucky so far and escaped it until yesterday. We were seeing reports on the news, photographs all over the internet, but our little part of the North West escaped it until 1pm yesterday. And once it arrived, it came down in bucket loads. You've all seen the bad nativity plays on TV where there's someone up in the rafters throwing fake snow down by the handful, it was like that only worse. I wasn't particularly worried about the blizzard outside because the ground was already wet and it wouldn't settle. As I looked out of the window at a quarter to three, 15 minutes before I had to get Isabelle from school, there were 3 inches of snow covering everything! yikes!  I tiptoed my car to school (still mid blizzard) and the traffic on the roads were making no dent in the snow on the roads whatsoever. It was covered in fresh snow as soon as it was driven on. Hmmm, call at the shop and get milk.. aha.. forward planning.

So we got home, slowly, but safely. At 4pm I txt'd my son (who has only been driving about 6 weeks) and warned him that the roads were really bad and to drive carefully. I got a reply of 'yes mother!' He only had to drive the 5 miles from his work and most of the journey was up a dual carriageway. At 6pm I sent him another txt to see how he was doing. He'd managed 3 out of the 5 mile trip. Everything was at a standstill.

Mark, my other half, phoned at 4.45 and said he was leaving work early. I asked if it was snowing really hard in Chester where he works (10 miles away). Yes it's snowing was the reply, but not THAT bad. I'm coming home on my motorbike (arghhhh no don't do it!) I proceeded to tell him how bad the roads were out here and that no way should he try to get home on his motorbike. He ignored me and said he'd see me soon.

At 6.55pm Mark walked in the door. He'd had to leave the motorbike roadside as the police stopped him and wouldn't let him go any further. He'd had to walk the last 3 miles home in the snow. At 7pm Russ walked in. He'd managed to get home in the car but it had taken him 3 hours and 15 minutes to do a trip that normally takes him 20 minutes at the most. My relief that they were both home holds no bounds.

I didn't know whether the school would be open for Isabelle or not this morning. I checked the website and it wasn't listed as closed. Most of the other schools in the area were on the list, but not hers. So off I tiptoed in the car to school to find when I got there that it was in fact closed! Grrrr. I said, it wasn't on the website when I checked at 8.30am, to a reply of, oh well it should be now. Fat lot of good that is to me stood outside the school. Grrrrrrr

Suffice to say... the world has stopped because it snowed.