A Runt’s Rant: Snow Day, You Say?

So it was snowing all day last Friday down in Southampton and we managed to get about an inch of snow.

As I walked to work, I knew exactly what was to follow- a painfully familiar sequence of events that had been repeating itself every winter for the past five years of my life.

To begin with, I was quite certain that I would be able to walk on the actual roads because there weren’t going to be ANY cars.

That was, of course, mainly because English cars are sensitive creatures that had long feared snow; in fact, it would seem that the mere thought of snow made their engines freeze up.

On a less sarcastic note, the fact that there were no cars at all did come to me as a surprise; after all, cars DO need winter tyres to be able to move in such weather conditions.

And no- one had any.

I remember this one time, about three years ago, when I was still at university. It was a snowy and cold winter day; yet, I managed to wake up as I had three essays to hand in that day.

As my university was on the top of a pretty steep hill (which was now covered in snow and ice) I thought that I’d be a good idea to take the bus.

Little did I know, however, that buses did not run in such ‘adverse weather conditions’.

As I neared the bus station, a bus driver came to me and explained that there were no buses running that day.

I was taken aback mainly because I KNEW that I was in England and NOT South Africa…after all, was it not normal for people to had expected snow and be ready for it?

‘What about winter tyres?’ I asked.

‘Too expensive, boy. Not worth getting them for three days a year, init?’ said the bus driver.

(In case you’re wondering, yes, I did have to walk all the way up the frozen hill to hand in my essays only to find that my university had shut for the day. Fun times.)

Too expensive!? Init!? A winter tyre costs between £ 60 and £ 90. That’s £ 240- £ 360 for four tyres. Tyres that you would be using for about three days a year; that meant that you would be able to use those for, say, at least five years.

In fact, I tried getting a taxi last Friday and was told that they only ran until 5:30pm because of the snow and because they did not have winter tyres.

Well, if they were smart enough, they would have bought winter tyres and would have been one step ahead of their competitors and would have earned a lot more than the tyres cost in just a day or two…

But they didn’t; probably because winter tyres were too darn expensive.

But let’s go back to last Friday; many friends of mine did not go to work because there was no public transport running (re winter tyres…) OR because they lived more than forty minutes away from work and could not be bothered to walk the distance.

And, I mean, who would blame them…? NONE of the ice or snow on the pavements had been gritted on Friday- it was slippery and quite dangerous EVERYWHERE. The only one to blame for that was the city council which failed to grit the pavements for four days! Having said that though, the council’s timetable had been quite hectic those four days.

On Friday, they had a ‘snow day’ so that they could all take part in the inter- county snowball bonanza.

Saturdays and Sundays were not working days, sooooo…

Monday...Well…It WAS Blue Monday, the most depressing day of 2013. They could have been too blue to grit, I guess…

Also, even if someone was to slip on the thick ice down the slope on Hill Lane (towards Commercial Road), fall down and end up on the road and get hit by a car, they could always blame it on the driver who did not react properly as he had failed to buy winter tyres for his car, right?

Sure they could. Because, you see, it might not be deemed reasonable for the council to have been able to see to ALL that snow and ALL that ice in JUST four days.

But maybe, just maybe, they were all hoping for the rain to come down and wash their woes away. And, surprisingly enough, it did.

But can you imagine what would happen if it snowed for, say, five days in a row and we ended up with, God forbid, six inches of snow!?

Of course you can’t; after all, England is in Africa.

And, let’s face it; it never snows in Africa.