Last night was our leaving do – and a surreal night it was! Earlier on in the evening I was walking back to halls with one of our visitors who was lamenting the fact that he probably wouldn’t see snow before he left the UK. Conversation went something like this:

Him: I really wish it would snow before I leave.
Me: Nah mate, it might snow in March or Feb but never before Christmas. It’ll never snow while you’re here.

Later that same day…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/7697040.stm

Check out #4 – “Linda Batting found this chestnut tree covered in snow in Radlett, Hertfordshire.” I’m so glad she found it, I’d heard they’d lost it recently.

So for our leaving do we went to a Chinese around the corner. It was snowing big fat flakes when we left and already starting to settle. The Chinese meal was very nice but veeeeery slow. One of my colleagues arrived late and declared in her typically direct European manner “I don’t know what you are so happy about – it is the end of the world out there!” Throughout the meal the power flickered every know and then with complete blackout near the end – we finished the meal by candlelight, drove home through 4-5 inches of snow, dodging broken branches on the road, through the dark silent villages, to a dark silent snowing campus.

I woke up today to a silent white world – amazing how much noise is made by electricity pumping water, heating water, running the overground trains on the horizon etc. Went to work (luckily was on site as car frozen solid and no hot water to melt the ice off the doors), we stood in the snow outside a darkened building waiting too be told to give up and go home, or go to work if the power was restored. Eventually we were sent home as there was no news of power being restored. Unfortunately I had to go and sit in halls, with no heating, no hot water (no tea!!!), no way to cook food etc for several hours until late afternoon when we gave up and properly left for the day. Whilst stuck there I amused myself with a walk across the snow covered fields (in soft leather shoes with broken soles and thus very damp feet by the end), finished my book, slept and ate chocolate. Unfortunately my cameras are both on the blink so I have no photos of the snow covered oak and chestnut trees, white fields and the numerous rabbit prints (we made giant versions!). Hopefully I’ll get some off a friend to show you.

All in all an enjoyable and surreal 24 hours! First snow to settle in the London area in over 70 years apparently (we were specifically waiting for the predictable answer to the “how long since it last snowed in October” question, and BBC London News just told me). Probably back to boring real life tomorrow. Hey ho!

In other news…

The Restaurant has finished – shock winners imo (assuming you’ve been following events of course). The drippy girl and her depressed bf won! Me and mum disagree. Boo hiss.

Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross. Yes, they are pratts. However the show was recorded 2 days before it was broadcasted – why is the producer not held responsible for not broadcasting it? Scapegoatage indeed.

It’s poor little Pumpkin’s worst time of year – she hates fireworks ever since she saw some through the skylight last year and gets very distressed. They started tonight with a bang (ha ha) – massive bang about 2 doors down. Pumpkin = quivering wreck. Good start!

Autumn days when the grass is jewelled,
And the silk inside a chestnut shell.
Jet planes meeting in the air to be refuelled,
All these things I love so well.
So I mustn’t forget, no I mustn’t forget,
To say a great big thank you, I mustn’t forget.

Clouds that look like familiar faces,
And the winter’s moon with frosted rings.
Smell of bacon as I fasten up my laces,
And the song the milkman sings.
So I mustn’t forget, no I mustn’t forget,
To say a great big thank you, I mustn’t forget.

Now, I’m not one to routinely question age old wisdom (AKA my primary school hymns) but I haven’t seen any jet planes meeting in the air to be refuelled yet this autumn.

Super news – went to Queen in O2 Arena this Monday! Me and Ding went – great time – waiting for some pics from a random person we met. We were about 30 feet away from the “pier” of the stage, so I could actually lip read what Paul Rodgers was singing, and we could (brace yourself) see the sweat on Brain’s face. Oh yes. Amazing. I did have my camera, but it gave up the ghost instantly and froze, so we had the interesting prospect of being as close to Queen as we have ever and may ever be, and having no camera bar Ding’s blurry camera phone! So rather than waste time taking photo memories, we spent the time making real ones instead. Plus then in true Ding style she located a BFG and a camera (though this time it wasn’t the BFG’s camera), got an offer of all their fantastic photos via email and got a photo taken of us taken on someone else’s camera. De ja vu?

It was truly great – I won’t give too much detail as I’m going again with AnM in a few weeks and there are some great bits I don’t want to spoil for her The O2 is a great arena though – my only regret being not getting their slightly earlier and going to the toilet, and so not being closer to the stage. With an average crowd age of about 35, there’s no mad rush to be at the front! With AnM we’re seated (at O2 the seated people didn’t even stand up during the concert!), though I’m very tempted to look for standing tickets on another day as well, unfortunately Ding is away for all remaining dates booger.

Last few weeks of work, crikey. Tis going fast!

Roll on Wednesday. It’ll mean I finish this silly stretch of consecutive nights on call. Then it’s 6 nights left which includes a weekend, and finito!

Spoke to Caro today, long time no speak to. Spent a large amount of money doing so (£20?) – so much for Skype being cheaper than using my mobile. That’s calling her mobile obviously – she neglected to tell me she had a landline now. Though to be fair, £20 over 6 months is probably fair.

Our kitchen has been invaded by students! Most noisily too. As it’s 10.30 and this corridor is full of staff who are either on call or working shifts, and since I am a grumpy old woman at times, I pointed this out to them. Now they are quiet(er) but are still in the kitchen and I’ve just discovered I am hungry and want to make some toast, but when your kitchen is a box room and there are 4 students in it (that you’ve just told off) I’ll have to wait…

Further reinforced today was that although me and Caro tried our hardest not to talk about work we kept returning to the subject – mostly because we both work to the exclusion of a life that we have nothing else to talk about. This is perhaps reflected in my blog too – what did I do today? Went to a seminar, then went back to bed and dozed (worked overnight so playing catch-up since there was nothing to do at work. Not a great story for a blog! I did go to a retirement do today – head honcho (honchette?) is sort of leaving (she sort of left 6 months ago but is still involved, and will remain involved after she leaves today) and it was quite interesting hearing about her career – her career has spanned 40 years and she’s risen to one of the top positions and is highly respected, yet she’s an approachable typical landrover driving horse and dog lover who’s very well “nice”, as one of the speakers at the do said.

Then I went back to my room, talked to Mum and Caro, played on the net and told off some students. Might watch some telly (and eventually have some toast) to round off the day. Gosh what a riveting day!