Snowed in

Today felt a little bit in the movies: waking up, looking through the window and seeing everything covered in snow. As you may know, this was Britain's biggest snowfall in 20 years, so there was a lot of snow!

How is this so special to warrant a post here? You see, in Porto, where I'm from it never snows (although it snowed just a little bit earlier this year it seems). I check my work email and most people already sent emails saying how they're snowed in and won't be able to make it to work. Could this really be like in movies, where kids have a day off from school? Not for me, the ever dedicated worker (oh, and I'll be having my yearly review soon...).

So I decide to venture outside, where it's snowing a lot - to me it looked like a blizzard! My first question was "Do I take an umbrella or not?". Relating to the movies again, I don't remember anyone ever wearing an umbrella in the snow, but it makes sense to wear one right? And so I did. Boy, was it cold outside, and as expected, I was pretty much the only one with an umbrella. I might not be used to this snow business but I'm glad I took the umbrella - soon enough all my clothes were covered with but not my face and head!! Who's the dumb one huh? I mean just because it's fluffy and white, it's still water (albeit frozen) falling from the sky!

But I digress... Buses weren't running so came back home and only went to the office in the afternoon, after it stopped snowing so much. Even though all this was slightly annoying, everything looked so lovely in white! And other thing I noticed is how everything seemed so peaceful. Broad daylight, people on the streets, but maybe because there were so few cars on the roads, there was almost complete silence. And still you see all the snow falling but unlike rain, it doesn't make one sound. Ah... maybe the next time it snows like today, I won't notice any of this, but it's good to be a "snow virgin" and be able to appreciate all this :)

Here's a couple of photos from today, where I live - you've all seen the Big Ben covered in snow, too ordinary... but where else are you going to see photos of the snow in Basingstoke? :)

"Yay, we finally have hair!!"

Slightly worried about tomorrow though with the hardened snow and slippery floors... The most balanced person I am not!

***UPDATE***: Just a couple of (impressive) numbers regarding yesterday: According to the British government, roughly six million people stayed at home today, forcing 3,000 firms to close at a cost of approximately £1.2 billion!!! Glad I only stayed home in the morning otherwise it could have been £1.3 billion!