Thursday 6 December 2012

Let it Snow!


It feels a bit writing this post about snow, when it is currently drizzling outside, but it's ok because this post is not actually just about snow, it was just too good a title not to use. To explain Durham has been through... well let's just say a quite lot of weather recently, i would say varied but the heatwave i was hoping for hasn't happened unfortunately; a bit annoying since the only reason i came to Durham was for the brilliant and warm weather... oh no wait i'm getting confused with myself, that was why i like the Med.

This is the story of how my advent calendar got slightly damaged.

(roll title theme, with suitable picture montage taken in a bar with some friends)

The story begins sometime ago, whilst i was back at home for the weekend. Waiting on platform 13 (i platform i didn't even know existed a while back) at Manchester Piccadilly. I was just coming back from a great weekend, although the 6:30 start wasn't so great. To cut a long descriptive link to the next part (i really don't do descriptive) my train was late. Not unusual you say, well it was for me after i was just boasting how great Transpennine were for being on time all the time, also the fire near the tracks between Oxford Rd and Piccadilly might have had something to do with the lateness.

So the train arrived 30 minutes late, but that was fine with me, they said they could make up the time. Then after getting stuck behind two stopping trains (one to Leeds, and the other to York) this illusion was pretty much shattered. Needless to say by the time i got to York, we were an hour late with still another hour journey to make. Then what was a funny moment became reasonably annoying. A woman got on our train, asked whether it was the Middlesborough train, and we duefully replied no, she then tried to get off, only problem was that the doors were now firmly shut. So she was there shouting at them and trying to force them open.

Magically they seemed to open. It wasn't magic, they had opened to let us off not her, as the tannoy explained that we had vacate and wait for the next train to Newcastle, as this train was now going to Middlesborough. Thankfully after all this and after we had all gotten onto the next train nothing else happened, apart from everything that was meant to happen, like the train going to Durham, so i should really say, nothing else unexpected happened.

Wait a minute this story has got nothing to do with my advent calendar, that happened a few weeks later. Ah well it's not as if the start of this story gave the wrong impression, and that it will actually take at least 8 series to get to the actual point. I might add that they are 8 great series and also if you're confused you've just totally missed a reference, but i'm quite used to people not getting my references, though quite a few of my friends have figured out that the answer "hitchhiker's right" is normally correct (it isn't in this case FYI).

However i do feel a bit guilty now, and so i will tell you the actual events of how my advent calendar became slightly damaged. But for whatever reason (i really don't feel the need to come up with one) i'm going to start from now and work backwards... because that's the way i roll. Actually it's not i tend to roll in a haphazard way whilst incurring many injuries and in any direction with flailing limbs.

So as i have previously mentioned my view from my window is of beautiful snow (well more sludge now, but i assure you it was beautiful snow at some point). This is because it has been snowing up here, twice in fact. Once in the depths of night, so i did not see it happening at all, i mean who's up at 1am at university? But i saw the other, mainly because i was walking at the time and you tend to notice being bombarded with snow, if only because of the blurry vision, that would either be down to snow or a very sudden onset of shortsightedness.

The side effect of this snow is slippy paths, which are quite comical for those who are experienced enough to walk on them without serious adverse effect, whilst watching many who have not attained this skill. Of course snow on it's on can't have caused such problems and you're right the other reason for all this ice, is well the ice we had before. A week before the snow fell infact the ice was here, as the positive Celsius went into hibernation and the negative came out to wreck havoc, and very cold noses.

Now you can't have ice without water (i really hope everyone reading this understands this principle). So for all this ice to appear there had to be water before, and i haven't led you down a blind alley because surprise surprise just before the ice it had rained... a lot.

Now back to Piccadilly train station. This time the train was on time, and i had firmly put the events of the couple weeks before behind me, all ready for a straightforward train journey. Any of you who follow the news, will probably know that this was an unlikely event since the rain had caused a few problems in the north east. Well a few problems equates to flooding, i mean proper flooding: i saw a river where it was a foot below the top of a telephone pole, somehow i don't think that's how it was designed.

Basically it meant another delayed train, although the views were very interesting, and we didn't have to change in York, despite being told over the tannoy again, luckily this was quickly rectified as we were let through Darlington (and actually the last train that day to stop at Chester-Le-Street). Durham fared better than the Darlington area, but nevertheless there were still problems.

When i got back the river bank had flooded the pathway and some lecture rooms were actually flooded. A new river had also appeared near Prebends bridge, down the hill and was nicely filling the reservoir on the roundabout, or should that be the reservoir that was the roundabout.

So it's been an eventful few weeks in terms of weather here, i've managed to make it through it all reasonably  well though, i mean my boots have quite high water marks, and my hair has been towel dried after walking from town but no ice related injuries or such. This has been the story of how my advent calendar... oh wait, almost forgot: basically it got bent in my rucksack on the train, having been given it in Macc by my parents, and then got damp when walking back through the rain and flood. You see i definitely needed all the build to that thoroughly exciting story and in no way have i over dramaticized something.

Ok maybe i did, sorry about that... but i assure you waiting for the story of the throat lozenges or the one-point perspective drawing, will be well worth it...

Day 6- You'll never look at this calendar in the same way now you know what it's been through

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