They Act Like it Never Snows

Here's the thing. . .I like living in London. No, that's not true. I LOVE living in London. There are so many great things about living here, and I think we got over culture shock here marginally faster than we did in France, probably because there is very little in the way of language barriers (I should really do a whole post on that).

That said, there are some things about living in the UK that really leave me scratching my head. Like most Europeans, they don't like ice. They have some sort of ice aversion. It annoyed me when we first got to France in 2004, but now it just makes me laugh. I got a diet coke at McDonald's the other day. . .not a single piece of ice. It's not like ice isn't a renewable resource. You take water, and you freeze it. It's really quite simple. But the Ice Hoarders here, they act like ice is a finite resource. Once it's gone, man, I guess it's gone, and there will be no more ice in the whole of Europe.

Another thing that. . .confuses. . .me about living in the UK is this whole snow situation. I've been to London three times in the winter. It snowed once (while we were on the top of an open-air boat on the Thames -- so totally NOT delightful), so I didn't really figure London saw a lot of snow. Then we moved out here to good ol' Mortlake, and I discovered that not only was I wrong, but that it SNOWED here. Mr. A has been bouncing off the walls with excitement since we moved in, waiting for the snow to arrive.

Ah, but here's where it gets interesting. So it snows. And really not that much. Yet we're treated to the airports closing, the trains freaking out and refusing to run, buses (oh, how I hate them) running even MORE behind, and giant headlines proclaiming: BRITAIN IN DEEP FREEZE. Now my scalp is practically raw from the scratching, because when I think "deep freeze," I think of, well, the frozen tundras of Russia or the northern parts of Scandinavia or Canada.

The pictures above really show how much snow we're talking about in London. Half the schools were closed. I'm serious, the trains were not running out of East London. The (London-area) airports were closed for days, and now I hear the Eurostar has angered people by pulling a quarter of its services. They act like this never happens. Except it happened last year. And the year before. This area has thousands and thousands of years of history. I'm pretty sure it has snowed lots of times. It's a little like eating candy before dinner, and then saying, "Wow, I never thought it would ruin my appetite. This is a huge shock. What am I going to do now?"

This also means shipping is extremely slow, with everything backlogged in warehouses. That means nothing is getting delivered and few things are going off to other countries. Once everything gets going again, there will still be serious delays. And on top of this, I just got an email from my other arch-nemesis, Transport for London, saying there will be major works on the tube/overground during the holidays, and there is apparently going to be ANOTHER freaking strike on the 26th. While people are trying to do Boxing Day shopping. Nice, guys. Nice.

All this aside, though, London is amazing. This is just one of those things that you have to shake your head and roll your eyes at. It is what it is. Tisk, tisk. :) Also, I think I figured out what's wrong with my camera. Judging by the massive difference in pictures depending on who is handling it, I think it's safe to say my camera is suffering from a disorder that starts with an M and ends with a c.