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bluefirebirdIt was Pete's birthday at the beginning of the month and as a present his son and daughter bought us tickets to see War Horse.
Now, our lives run to a routine, with him staying with me most weekends and riding the 30-odd miles home on a Tuesday before going out with the other retired cyclists on a Wednesday. He also spends much of the afternoon dozing on the sofa after a ride in the morning, so we planned that I'd give him a lift most of the way home in the morning on my way to my folks' - and hopefully he wouldn't sleep through the play.
We left mine with a very light dusting of snow on the ground and the odd snow flurry and - as it turned out - drove into the snow. By Wisley (M25, junc 10) the snow was heavy, but only just beginning to settle. I dropped him off and he headed home and I went on to my folks. They have been car-less for a few weeks after crunching the car and I have been taking Mum shopping. By the time we left for the supermarket the snow was beginning to lie thickly and my RWD car fishtailed a bit on the slippery road, alarming Mum no end, but enough to make me cautious/careful but not panic.
Fortunately the steep slope into and out of the shop was well gritted and the later journey to take my parents to an appointment at the doctor's was achieved safely on the local major roads. When I left them at 14:30 I knew that what I should have done was head home to tuck the car in the garage and get the train into London from my end. Instead I headed off to Pete's!
Although the roads were still mostly OK, I joined the back of a serious queue past his road in order to be able to turn down it, and once there turned into a completely white road. With 3 cars competing for 2 spots on the front of the property, I lost out there, but the neighbours were at work which allowed me to nab the spot right in front.
He suggested we drive to the station, but I turned my nose up at any further driving while the snow was still falling pretty steadily - and then we were able to walk the half mile to the station faster than the queuing traffic...
South West Trains were unaffected by the weather and our journey into town and back was without hitch. The play was something else. The puppets for the animals are impressive and memorable and overall it was good, but whilst the symbolism of most things was pretty obvious there were one or two aspects that left me puzzled. We'd been bought terrific seats - close to the stage and level with it, which was brilliant. Thoroughly enjoyed it although I was worried that there would be a sad ending - after all I don't think things ended well for many horses used in the First World War.
It was getting toward midnight when we got off the train and that was decision time, do I stop over at his place (ice-box that it is!!!) or head hopefully for home. His road didn't seem too icy at that point, the slightly more major route along to the station certainly seemed OK and the roads get more major from there - and if I drove carefully in minimal traffic it should be reasonably safe. Against is that they close off most of the lanes on the M25 or the M4 somewhere on the route after 9pm most week-nights and if the snow was that thick at home I was going to have to dig the front of the garage out in order to park in it and I didn't fancy that at 1am.
So I stayed over. I rang my neighbour this morning to check (no snow at home!!!!) and looked up the traffic cams for as much of the journey as possible. The only bit that looked iffy was Pete's road *sigh*
I gave it till midday to leave in the hope of getting the "warmest" conditions of the day but still had quite some trouble getting away from the kerb on the icy road. As expected the rest of the route was clear enough with the snow disappearing from the roadside sometime after Heathrow.
So I think the journey home last night would have worked - and Tills would have been happier to have me home sooner.
The travel news on teletext was pretty grim about the M25 last night, but I think that was to the east not to the west where I go. Also we met hordes of Arsenal fans on the tube on the way back to Waterloo and today's news reported that a number of them spent over 10 hours stuck on trains on their journey home, so we were lucky compared to that.
Additionally my neighbour looked in on Tills - just in case she was starving to death in my absence (yeah, right) - and found a blue tit fluttering about the place. Now how in heck did that get in?
Now, our lives run to a routine, with him staying with me most weekends and riding the 30-odd miles home on a Tuesday before going out with the other retired cyclists on a Wednesday. He also spends much of the afternoon dozing on the sofa after a ride in the morning, so we planned that I'd give him a lift most of the way home in the morning on my way to my folks' - and hopefully he wouldn't sleep through the play.
We left mine with a very light dusting of snow on the ground and the odd snow flurry and - as it turned out - drove into the snow. By Wisley (M25, junc 10) the snow was heavy, but only just beginning to settle. I dropped him off and he headed home and I went on to my folks. They have been car-less for a few weeks after crunching the car and I have been taking Mum shopping. By the time we left for the supermarket the snow was beginning to lie thickly and my RWD car fishtailed a bit on the slippery road, alarming Mum no end, but enough to make me cautious/careful but not panic.
Fortunately the steep slope into and out of the shop was well gritted and the later journey to take my parents to an appointment at the doctor's was achieved safely on the local major roads. When I left them at 14:30 I knew that what I should have done was head home to tuck the car in the garage and get the train into London from my end. Instead I headed off to Pete's!
Although the roads were still mostly OK, I joined the back of a serious queue past his road in order to be able to turn down it, and once there turned into a completely white road. With 3 cars competing for 2 spots on the front of the property, I lost out there, but the neighbours were at work which allowed me to nab the spot right in front.
He suggested we drive to the station, but I turned my nose up at any further driving while the snow was still falling pretty steadily - and then we were able to walk the half mile to the station faster than the queuing traffic...
South West Trains were unaffected by the weather and our journey into town and back was without hitch. The play was something else. The puppets for the animals are impressive and memorable and overall it was good, but whilst the symbolism of most things was pretty obvious there were one or two aspects that left me puzzled. We'd been bought terrific seats - close to the stage and level with it, which was brilliant. Thoroughly enjoyed it although I was worried that there would be a sad ending - after all I don't think things ended well for many horses used in the First World War.
It was getting toward midnight when we got off the train and that was decision time, do I stop over at his place (ice-box that it is!!!) or head hopefully for home. His road didn't seem too icy at that point, the slightly more major route along to the station certainly seemed OK and the roads get more major from there - and if I drove carefully in minimal traffic it should be reasonably safe. Against is that they close off most of the lanes on the M25 or the M4 somewhere on the route after 9pm most week-nights and if the snow was that thick at home I was going to have to dig the front of the garage out in order to park in it and I didn't fancy that at 1am.
So I stayed over. I rang my neighbour this morning to check (no snow at home!!!!) and looked up the traffic cams for as much of the journey as possible. The only bit that looked iffy was Pete's road *sigh*
I gave it till midday to leave in the hope of getting the "warmest" conditions of the day but still had quite some trouble getting away from the kerb on the icy road. As expected the rest of the route was clear enough with the snow disappearing from the roadside sometime after Heathrow.
So I think the journey home last night would have worked - and Tills would have been happier to have me home sooner.
The travel news on teletext was pretty grim about the M25 last night, but I think that was to the east not to the west where I go. Also we met hordes of Arsenal fans on the tube on the way back to Waterloo and today's news reported that a number of them spent over 10 hours stuck on trains on their journey home, so we were lucky compared to that.
Additionally my neighbour looked in on Tills - just in case she was starving to death in my absence (yeah, right) - and found a blue tit fluttering about the place. Now how in heck did that get in?
