Category: Uncategorized

It started about 7am where we live (which probably tells you more about my life with kids than my weather forecasting skills).

At first, I assumed it would be one of those pitiful attempts at snow, which vanished within minutes.

But no! By the time the above photo was taken an hour later (just after 8am), it had begun to settle big time.

It really does look very Christmas card-like and I almost dug out the Rat Pack At Christmas album, but then realised I couldn’t face the references to figgy pudding, holly and Rudolph!

Now, there will inevitably be choruses up and down the land of: ‘Goodness, how unusual for it to snow at this time of year,’ and these people would actually be wrong.

How do I know this (not being related to Ian McCaskill or Michael Fish)? Well, tomorrow is C’s birthday and she can remember loads of occasions when it seemed like winter at this time of year.

Memories of winter tend to stick around your birthday, don’t they?

Anyway, let’s enjoy it while it lasts and hope for a little bit of sun this summer, as well!

A cheesy local radio DJ pointed out the other day that “the running season is in full swing” – as if I needed any reminding.

I work a literal stone’s throw from the South Bank of the Thames and so any foray out of the office at lunchtime requires me to do battle with the hordes of vest-and-shorts-clad runners who are pounding the concrete in their desperate attempts to keep fit.

Runners (never, ever call them joggers – a word that conjures up images of middle-aged women in flannel tracksuits) seem to think that they own the towpath and pavement in the area of London where I work.

Red-faced and sweating profusely, they hurtle towards the humble pedestrian, narrowly changing their course at the last minute to avoid a violent collision.

They never speak, probably because they’d expire if they tried, but issue angry glares at anyone who causes them to deviate from their set route.

I have never yet collided with one of these ‘athletes’, but I go out in constant fear that my next lunchtime will be my last.

Yet another reason why I shun most forms of exercise!

If proof were ever needed why religion is bad for you, look no further than the Philippines this Easter, as reports come in that dozens of people have ignored government warnings and have re-enacted the crucifixion of Jesus.

Yup, some people have seven-inch nails hammered into them to atone for their sins, as part of the Easter ‘celebrations’.

For starters, it beggars belief that the powers-that-be had to issue the alert in the first place, but at least 20 people did re-enact the crucifixion of Christ on Good Friday, undergoing whipping and nailing.

What have these people done that they feel the need to go this far to atone?