Today I've mostly bin...

[Bunnylump]

Well I can now drive about but the school car park, as ever, was completely lethal. Two cars slid out of their parking places whilst parked, and blocked the road. Anyway, only one more week of exams in January for me to deal with, EVER. Result.

[Wulfruna]

Well, wehave had no snow to speak of down here by the coast (apart from a brief flurry yesterday). I am hoping the weather elsewhere improves now however, as I am due to fly out from Heathrow (!!) on Tuesday to go to Hamburg (return Friday). Just as well it wasn't this week .
So I am up to my eyes at the moment translating a set of documents from German to English in preparation for the meeting. I really enjoy doing this (unpaid - but I do get occasional free trips to Germany like this one )

[giraffe]

I got stuck in the snow yesterday and had to be pushed. Fortunately the son of a neighbour happened to be waiting to be picked up from the bus stop, and offered to push me out of the car park. More heavy snow forecast for tomorrow. (Although it has snowed when none was forecast and vice versa this week)

The icicles are looking impressibve outside my bedroom.

[Bunnylump]

We have another massive dollop of it on the way tonight, so it looks like our Burns' night guests might need to stay over! Well, up to three of them, anyway. They don't live THAT far away, but there's not any "level walking" around here - it's all up and down the valley, which could be a bit treacherous.

[chazzie]

......hope you have a great Burns Night party Bunny .....and all your guests can get there

[kathlyn]

.....just had our haggis. Tasty except OH didn't put enough whisky in the sauce.

[Laura]

Well, this weekend we are having Christmas again. One sister was in Kenya on the real day, so we're doing Christmas Part 2 complete with presents and another Christmas dinner tomorrow. And by the look of the snow, they may all be staying for the forseeable future!!!!

[eirian]

That sounds like you've got a good weekend in store there, Laura!
It's due to thaw so hopefully they'll be able to leave...

We've got about 6" here this morning. Don't think we'll be going anywhere - Thomas would just walk outside, try to make footprints in the snow and fall over. He'd then refuse to move and be thoroughly miserable. So we'll just stay indoors. Don't think we'll even try a snowman in the garden - not worth the tantrums!

[giraffe]

I had to take K to the station first thing. She missed last Saturday at Conservatoire because of the weather, and tonight they have their concert, so she needs to be there. Fortunately her other orchestra cancelled last night's first rehearsal because I wasn't looking forward to trying to get through the centre of Birmingham and along the M6 in the middle of the blizzard. The roads were terrible this morning, even the main roads just had a couple of tyre tracks and I thought I wasn't going to be able to get home because the hill down to our house was so treacherous. Just very glad I didn't meet anything coming the other way as the only set of tyre tracks in the 6+ inches of snow were on the wrong side of the road!

[Bunnylump]

......hope you have a great Burns Night party Bunny .....and all your guests can get there

Thank you, yes, the Burns' night was a great success. Although I am very much worse for wear today, having only got to bed at 3am!! The predicted snow was much later and much less than we had been told, so we didn't need to have any over night guests. We also had a Danish friend turn up by train well after midnight - she'd been singing in a concert in London. I think she was rather bemused by all the shenanigans, but cheerfully joined in with trying the haggis and some of the scarier single malts. Another friend has just sent me a really comical photo of me (dressed in bits of tartan, with a "kilt and sporran" apron, a ginger wig and tam o shanter and D in his makeshift kilt and genuine black watch sporran. We both look completely demented.

All the puzzles (Scottish quiz, pictures of Scottish places, composite Scots lass / laddie, lyrics round AND "identify the tune played on bagpipes" http://www.scotland.org/quizzes/bagpipe-quiz were tackled with gusto and all solved. And the whiskey tasting, where we invited them all to try five different single malts and then match them with the tasting notes was hysterical. Although I have to say I would have thought most people would be pushed to identify things like

Quite dense and smoky on the nose, with smoked fish, bladderwrack, sweet fruit and peat. Full-bodied and peaty in the mouth, with ginger, ozone, dark chocolate, black pepper and a kick of chilli in the very long, smoky finish

(which was the description of the 10 year old Talisker!!!)


Laura - it sounds like you've been having a fun weekend as well. Hope it goes as well today!!

Giraffe - all that travelling in those conditions sounds really scary. Glad you made it back safely.

[giraffe]

Sounds like you have fun Bunny.

I'm hoping it thaws rapidly this afternoon before I have to head into Birmingham for the concert.

[LAT]

Fingers crossed for you giraffe!

[Wulfruna]

(which was the description of the 10 year old Talisker!!!)

That sounds exactly like the Talisker that I know and love - best of all the highland whiskies and unique to the Isle of Skye. It is noticeable that when I go to a whisky shop in Scotland and mention that I am looking for something akin to Talisker, their whole attitude changes towards a Sassenach customer and they will reach under the counter and say "- ah weel, then ye might like this....."

[Bunnylump]

Out for a walk...the snow has pretty much disappeared overnight, but the Apostles Pond was still thick ice. It was strange to see this odd yellow ball in the sky. I can't imagine what it was, but it was nice and warm...

[kathlyn]

Out for a walk...the snow has pretty much disappeared overnight, but the Apostles Pond was still thick ice. It was strange to see this odd yellow ball in the sky. I can't imagine what it was, but it was nice and warm...

I too had to ask what that great bright yellow ball in the sky was. At least last nights heavy rainfall washed most of the white stuff away. Lets hope we don't get anymore.

[giraffe]

There's still snow on our road, but it has gone mushy and is very slippery.


...........to see Les Miserables. Which was postponed from last Sunday due to the snow. Enjoyed it, but didn't think it was as good as the London stage version.

[Bunnylump]

Do you mean the film? I haven't bothered to see it, but then I didn't like the stage version I saw. I was wondering about going to see the new Quentin Tarrentino film; when I looked it up it was described as containing "a lot of bloody violence"!!

[giraffe]

Yes the film. It is very violent, but all the dead people get an encore at the end. Good scene with a flying piano in it.

[Bunnylump]

[Looby]

Been out for lunch with all the family to celebrate my mum's 99th birthday last Tuesday