Let it snow, let it snow...

I spent some anxious minutes on the phone tonight, trying to get through to my family in Bodmin. The phone lines were down due to extremely heavy demand for a while, but I finally managed to ascertain that my family are at home, looking at 8 inches of snow in the garden. The town is completely gridlocked. Cornwall has not had this sort of weather for at least 20 years, and there are still cars stranded on Bodmin Moor.

Thank God none of my family were out in it! I'm going down to see them by train next Friday, and I nearly chose today, rather than next week. I'm due to get in on the 13.43 train, and my Mum tells me that there would have been no way she could have got to Bodmin Road Station; I would have had to walk 4 miles in snow. That's if I could even have got through Devon and Cornwall by train anyway; I would probably be facing a dismal evening in Newton Abbot, finding a B and B or a way back to London. I don't mean to insult Newton Abbot, by the way; it may have a vibrant and sophisticated nightlife, and a choice of restaurants often featured in the Sunday papers, for all I know, it's just that, when attempting a trouble free journey between London and Cornwall, it's not exactly an overnight stop that you'd factor in.

Mind you, I had a great weekend in Taunton once. Although we had tickets to an open air classical concert. And it was the middle of Summer. And very hot. And planned sometime in advance.

Anyway, all my thoughts are with the 500 people still stranded on Bodmin Moor. The only experience that I've had to come close to this was driving over Shap Summit in a white out with a previous partner, but it subsided as we descended.

Anyway, if there is anybody out there reading this on a laptop on Bodmin Moor, or a mobile, or something, my thoughts go out to you.