Frozen

'The cold never bothered me anyway' is not a line I will be saying - or indeed singing - any time soon.

I really don't like this time of year.  I would honestly hibernate if I could, cold weather and I are not a good mix.

My daughter disowned me on our walk to school the other morning when the paths were icy.  I'd adapted my walk accordingly for the conditions, but apparently walking like a penguin is embarrassing - tell that to Pingu and his pals!

What happened to the mild winter predicted by the Met Office?  As I sit here shivering, I'm thinking that I could probably do a better job of predicting the weather with a few pine cones, some seaweed and my rheumatic foot.

I saw a Minion cartoon on social media which answered the question 'Do you want to build a snowman?' with the line 'No, I don't - I want to build a sandcastle on a beach in the sunshine!' which sums up my feelings perfectly.

I appreciate though that other parts of the country have had it much worse than we have.

So far we've avoided having a 'snow day', when the schools close, but I know the children are all looking forward to this - the parents probably not so much. 

I remember this happening when I was younger, but mainly because the boiler would break down and we would be sent home; it was an old stone building and without heating was positively Arctic.

I also remember our bottles of school milk freezing, and trying to chip through the ice with a straw to drink it.  The alternative was to balance it on the radiator in a bid to thaw it out so it could be consumed within the required time. 

Then when I was at secondary school often the bus wouldn't turn up because the diesel would be frozen.  Was that an actual thing, diesel freezing?  I'm wondering now, because I've never heard of it happening since. 

Needless to say, I'm looking forward to Spring.