'S NO JOKE.......

Had Youngest Stepdaughter's two last weekend. Eldest Granddaughter and Youngest Grandson ran Hubby and I ragged the whole time. E.G has become a proper little madam with the most infectious giggle and sense of humour. She has this way of looking at you as if you were the dumbest kid on Earth which is somewhat unnerving in a three year old. Y.G is into everything. He managed six steps all by himself before plopping onto his bottom and giving himself a round of applause. It was a different thing entirely when he borrowed E.G's dolls pram. With something to hang onto he zoomed across the floor, not stopping until the pram collided with the French windows. I had this vision that if there were no obstacles in the way he would be quite capable of walking in a straight line forever. He has also learned how to be very defiant. He squirted his milk all over the carpet so I said firmly "NO!". He looked up at me, gave me a gummy grin - and promptly squirted milk all over the carpet again. "NO!" I reitereated. When the milk hit the carpet for the fourth time I confiscated the bottle and then had to endure the screaming ab-dabs for the next five minutes.

On the Sunday morning, I thought it would be an adventure to walk them over to the paper shop. Y.G was in the buggy and well bundled up and E.G refused to wear her scarf, hat and mittens. With every step we took it got colder and colder - the temperature was just plummeting every second. By the time we were on our way back some ten minutes later both youngsters were crying from the cold. I didn't blame them. I was almost crying myself. I told E.G, "Let's put your scarf and hat on at least!" But she flatly refused. "Well then don't cry because you're cold!" I said rather unsympathetically. They were okay once they'd thawed out back in the warm embrace of the house but I did mentally question the logic of a three year old who cries when she's cold but simply won't wear a scarf and hat!

Mummy picked them up at lunch time. As we waved them off the arctic winds forced a hasty retreat from the doorstep and within a couple of hours it was snowing. And snowing. And snowing. When I got up for work on Monday there was almost a foot of the white stuff draping everything. Hubby and I checked the weather updates on TV. Warnings were rife not to go out unless you absolutely had to. All bus services had been suspended but no-one mentioned the tramlink and finally at 7.15, Hubby began to escort me to the tram stop. Half way there, with snow up to my knees and a blizzard swirling around us, we met a group of people who told us the tamlink service has also been suspended so we turned round and went home again. A series of text messages and mobile phone calls finally confirmed that no-one was going to get to work that day so we spent it indoors watching TV and seeing the snowdrifts grow and grow and grow. The last time I recall snow like that is when I was living in a flat in Mitcham some twenty years ago!

Tuesday dawned frozen and cold. I checked and found that there were some buses so left home at 7.10 arriving at the office two hours later after some very long detours. It was complete mayhem. Even the staff at West Croydon Bus Station didn't know what buses were running and which ones weren't. Around half a dozen staff managed to get in that day and most finished by three to make sure no-one got stranded and, even though things were more or less back to normal yesterday there are still great huge clods of frozen snow everywhere and walking along our quiet little cul-de-sac this morning was a complete nightmare! I live in terror of having a prat-fall and making a complete idiot of myself.

Personally I think the snow brings out the kid in most of us. There is still something of a thrill in seeing your own footprints in virgin snow and there are plenty of smiley snow-people beaming at passers-by from front gardens. And of course I just had to take some photographs of our snow-covered garden and neighbourhood. It looks so pretty and it has this knack of bringing out the community spirit in everyone, with neighbours all waving at one another where, more often than not, we are all generally too busy getting on with our lives to even notice each other. But I am beginning to tire of it now, I must admit, and have huge hankerings for the first pink blossoms of spring and being able to walk the streets without the fear of breaking an ankle at every step!