The 7am WTF! The 8.45am WTF!
It was 7am when I was rudely awoken this morning. The noise emanating from my mobile phone pierced my ears with so much annoyance it had to be stopped. It wasn’t the alarm though, but instead a text message from my boss.
Take it easy driving in to work today.
My boss, being ever such the clever person that he is, decided to be nice and show concern for my safety, as I travelled into work. At the time though, 7am, I didn’t want to know what the message meant and what relevance it had to me. Instead, I rolled over, pulled the duvet over me to shield me from the strange coldness in my room, and went back to sleep.
An hour later and I awoke again. This time to the piercing sound of my alarm, once again emanating from the torrid device that refuses to leave me alone. As I unraveled myself from the bed covers, I felt the coldness again. The weather had been reasonably nice in recent days, so to feel another cold snap was a little harsh on the senses.
I stumbled into the bathroom and jumped under the shower. The shower was very quickly followed by an intense display of putting on clothes as fast as possible, such is the bitterness of many British bathrooms in the winter. A slice of toast and a cup of coffee later and I was ready to pack the laptop into its bag, gather my wallet and keys and head out to the car.
Upon opening my front door the earlier text message, which had since been forgotten about, suddenly made an awful lot of sense. Everything was a few inches under snow. Looking at the time, a few words that cannot be repeated spilled from my mouth, and then the trudge down the buried car began. Several more of these unrepeatable words passed before I was able to leave for work.
It was then I realised that living just outside of the city limits is great for most of the time. The one time when it is not though is after a snow shower. The road I live on failed to see any grit, and the left turn at the end that joins the steep hill was not welcoming for my car. Even in second gear the poor thing was still struggling for traction and spinning on the spot. The TC light has never seen so much action.
Once passed this obstacle the journey was thankfully uneventful, although full of concentration and gentle application of the controls.
Snow is great as a rare occurrence, but not when it comes as a surprise. And the lesson I learned today? Open the curtains in the morning.