In case you live in a house with no windows and have had no contact with the outside world, you may not know that this week the United Kingdom is experiencing what the papers have been calling the ‘big freeze’. Basically, it’s been snowing like crazy. It’s Adlai’s first sighting of the white stuff and it has proved quite the adventure in his little life.
The situation has been compounded by the visit of Adlai’s Grandma – who is going by ‘Mimi’ – from the land of America. The visit has seen us travel as far as Heathrow, which is the furthest south Adlai’s been (a statistic I relayed to both Mimi and Faith and received a less than enthusiastic response).
Anyway.. the week was going splendidly until two days before Mimi was due to leave. The snow came and the planes, cars, and everthing else got stuck. My parents live in Chesham, a town relatively close to the airport, so the decision was made that we should make a dash for it to improve our chances of getting to Heathrow the following morining. So Mimi and I headed to my car, armed with cheeseboards (we don’t have any spades) to dig it out. With the car running, we loaded Faith and Adlai along with perhaps a year’s supply of blankets, nappies and I don’t know what, just in case we were in fact entering a new ice age. After all the preparation, the journey went relatively smoothly. I mean, it took twice as long as usual and I occasionally went sideways around corners, but we made it. The excitement was all too much for Adlai, who slept though most of the journey.
That night the snow worsened and the temperatures plummeted. Chesham found fame as it featured on the BBC and ITV News as the coldest place in the United Kindom at -19.6 degrees Celsius (-3 degrees Fahrenheit). Mimi’s flight got cancelled and moved to Christmas day. We were stuck.
