Monday, February 2, 2009

Let it snow, goddammit!

The snow in London was wonderful today.  People living outside London have been a bit irked by the media coverage of it, because they get snow all the time.  Well we don't.  It's the first time we've had snow like this since I've been living here, and that makes it exceptional.

The media have actually been excelling themselves in looking for the negative side of things.  Of course these days any concept or material thing is deemed only to have meaning if it has a financial value attached, so all we're hearing now is that the lost days at work have lost the economy £1.2 billion.

Then there's how shit we are at coping with it -  the BBC actually sent someone to Moscow to show us how, there, they have tire chains on cars and special machines and thousands of people to keep the roads clear in weather like this.  We don't.  Let's face it - the sudden drop in temperature and the weather front moving in from the Steppes or wherever is probably Gordon Brown's fault.

What a load of fucking crap.  How stupid and soulless do they think we are?  Britain - and especially London - rarely has snow like this.  Spending millions on something the Russians need because for them, it's a weekly occurrence, would be like spending millions on prevention of forest fires or meteor strikes in the middle of London.  Of course we weren't prepared for it, because it hardly ever happens!

And as for the economy, FUCK the economy.  Just for once.  For one magical, rare day.  Because everyone - every normal person - I spoke to or e-mailed today who was affected by the snow thought it was magical.  People smiled at each other and chatted in the street - this is London we're talking about, remember!  Overnight it was quiet as the countryside.  People went out and played, or stayed in and curled up under blankets and watched black and white films. People from Africa and children under eighteen, alike in the fact that they had never touched snow before, posed for photos as the flakes fell on their shoulders.  It was a day for snuggling up by the fire or getting wet-through from snowball fights, whatever your pick.  A lost day, a treasured day, an unforgettable day.  And we'll be lucky to have another one like it in this neck of the woods in my lifetime.

So can we please, just for two minutes, forget about finding the negative angle, forget about finding someone to blame, forget about the gut-instinct reaction to continually piss on the country's chips ever single day of the fucking year?

Everyone I spoke to today seems to think that would be a great idea.

  

1 comment:

  1. The ginger wine I bought coz it was snowing wasn't too bad even though it was knock off, I watched some episodes of the Wire which isn't too bad either. I feel sorry for the media constantly wrtiing stuff contra to their own experience of life because "well it's Britain, it must be shit", it's why the had problems with the olympics "oh this story's all good what there's no bad angle there must let's see no I can't see one damn..."
    Oh and might snow again later in the week now what licquer (how ever you damn well spell it) should I buy this time...

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