Ice Age: London

Having recently seen the movie, Ice Age 3D, and considering the weather here in the first two and a half weeks of 2010 it appears that life is imitating art. The maximum daytime temperature has yet to be over 0C, and it really wouldn’t surprise me if I did see a woolly mammoth appear.
There’s been plenty of snow (and ice), which has turned the commute to work into a daily adventure. I’m quite happy to have the mountain bike over here, and with its wide knobbly tyres, the ride to work is far more relaxed and enjoyable than my attempts at snow riding last February (done on the road bike with its 23mm wide slick tyres).

The ice has provided its own entertainment. Due to the weather being between 0C and -4C, the snow doesn’t melt. When pedestrians using the footpaths constantly travel over it, the ice gets broken up/slushes up, but refreezes with predictable results. The roads are the same, but the constant car travels and their greater warmth (tyre, exhaust & engine, and shear numbers) does clear the roads of the snow and ice. Note that I use the word ‘road’ and not street, because the side streets are something akin to being halfway between the footpaths and main roads - they’re a lottery as to their iceyness. All good fun, but I’ve stuck to using the main roads and the more commonly used side streets for survival. Plenty of others have not paid so much attention to what’s in front of them with some rather comical results, and this includes the footpaths.

That aside, the place is looking rather spectacular with all the snow about.