STORMY WEATHER

JUST TO TELL YOU THAT THE WEATHER HAS BEEN BAD THIS WINTER THOUGH YOU HAVE HAD WORSE WEATHER THAN US.

We went to Disneyland before Christmas on the overnight sleeper so John could see his family. It is nothing like the Trans-Karroo or the Blue Train or anywhere near as comfortable as the train to university that took 3 days! It had snowed and was bitterly cold. Snow delayed the trains back from Paris and turned the platforms into freezinf trays for 100s of families. but that was the night of the Eurostar fiasco so by comparison we were very lucky.

We went to Spain for Christmas – ALL THE WAY – to the far south to Malaga – not to get warm but to see friends and take a break from the house and its demands.
It rained. It rained very hard. It rained too hard for us to venture outdoors. It did not stop. It thundered, it lightened, it poured. We enjoyed ourselves nevertheless.

In January we set off again to Spain to see the Tamborada in San Sebastian. Once again it poured and we were unable to see the opening ceremony for umbrellas. However the next day we saw and enjoyed the Children’s Parade and had a wonderful fish lunch at a harbor restaurant while the sun appeared.

We had a good Village party on New Year’s Eve. Ate good home-cooked food, indulged in too much wine and stayed out till after 3am. We sang seasonal songs and John was one of the 3 cabaret acts of the evening – a whole new career lies ahead of him and you can read about it on the village website.

We have had days when we have sat outside and the temperature has reached 20 degrees C.

However when J and small T came to do some skiing the weather let us down badly. On our first attempt to go up the mountain the weather blew a blizzard. It was minus 11 on the slopes and impossible to see anything. We had to put chains on the car and as it was a new skill and experience it took almost an hour and involved rolling in the snow on the road side. Coming back down the mountain was scary. The road was invisible – we followed another car down but car and tracks were whited out as we crawled down. We gave up any plans for skiing the next day as it wasn’t going to be possible. In fact we were told that on another ski site someone died that day in an avalanche – there was a code orange on the mountains apparently that we did not know about.

However John, J and small T have been back on the slopes for two days skiing and tobogganing and have enjoyed themselves – John will no doubt do a blog about it.

I have decided to call my soul my own for a day and just be relatively warm and peaceful.