The Winter Month

Winter is now truly upon us here, and that means doing all things wintery for life in London – whether that’s normal for London or not...

It’s not normally this cold, with temperatures barely making it over 0C for the last few weeks. I’ve still been happily commuting by bike through it all. You may think this would be mad at temperatures reaching -13C, but after about 10mins of riding I’m quite toasty under a few layers. The anti-pollution mask has been great for keeping my face warm throughout, even if it does tend to fog the glasses when I’m stopped at the lights - which is where the photo at the bottom of the page is from.

The other tricky item to negotiate is snow. This also isn’t something that’s particularly normal for London. There’s been plenty of it about, as you can see, but funnily enough, it’s not been a problem to ride through. Sure, I’ve switched to the mountain bike with its wider knobbly tyres, but the simple fact that my commute is all along bus routes makes it a breeze (touch wood). The buses and traffic in general mean that the roads are wet, but both ice and snow are slushed up by the vehicles, and is pretty much found only at the edges in the gutter. Far more treacherous are the iced over footpaths...

Still, as long as you walk on the white stuff that crunches under your feet, you’re fine. This was the case when Sheryl and I ventured through Ravenscourt park on our way to the Natural History Museum for that other fun pastime found on the ice - skating. This very large park was literally covered in snow, making for a spectacular and picturesque walk (see the pic at the top). You did have to feel for the poor ducks and other water fowl wandering across the frozen lake in the middle (above right). The same goes for one small dog whose legs weren’t long enough to keep it above the snow! Both tennis courts were in their traditional whites - completely covered - as was the lawn bowls club further along the park.
Quite a few kids though. As Sheryl said, “kids will always play in a playground no matter what the weather.” and she was right. Just a fantastic wintery scene to walk through...

But back to the ice skating... We met up with Vanessa, Zara, Jarrett and some of Vanessa’s other friends for a session on the ice rink that sits outside the front of the incredible building that is the Natural History Museum (left).
None of us had skated since we were kids, so the start of our session was with much trepidation. Chaos also reigned supreme as there were plenty of small children there with their parents. I’m glad to say that we all stayed on our feet... erm... skates, despite the traffic hazard that all the kiddies presented. Great fun in the end as we all found some level of form and gained our confidence on the ice. Dinner in a nearby pub was just the ticket to finish off the late afternoon.

Finally, winter over here in the UK means one other thing: Christmas, and with that in mind, I again found myself enjoying another Santa Crawl. This time, I was joined by Sheryl and Vanessa for what was to be a fun night of visiting several pubs around the London Bridge area with over 250 other “Santas”. Again, it was all done in the name of fundraising and this year it was for the St Christopher’s Hospice. Raising almost £2,000 meant that we had paid for all in the hospice to enjoy a full on Christmas dinner with their families. Now that’s some Christmas Spirit coming from enjoying some Christmas spirits. Boom! Boom! ... I’ll get me coat...

Have a good (and safe) Christmas folks!