Winter is coming

Morning frost, Nov 2013

It's getting a lot colder now.  We started getting frost about two weeks ago, saw some snow-capped hills too and last week, we even got a little snow on the ground!  It was very little though, not enough to make even a mini-snowman but it's got me all excited waiting for proper snow to come.

I'm looking forward to snow this winter because we can go sledding and snowboarding this winter.  Last winter, I was carrying very precious cargo inside me and so all snowsports were out for me.

We've just had some mild days these week but apparently it's going to get very cold again soon.  I don't understand British newspapers.  The way they go on and on about how bad winter is going to get, you'd think this was the first ever winter in UK.   You get winter here every year, right?  You'd know what to do by now right?

C'mon snow!  We're waiting!

Autumn 2013

Shot on my little phone as we were driving on a country lane.

Oct 2013

This is my first autumn ever.

I was happily telling Connor about how the leaves are green in the summer but then in the autumn, they'll change colour.  "...and first they go yellow, then orange, then finally red!  And then the leaves will all drop off the trees as the trees get ready to sleep in the winter."

My story was interrupted by my husband who pointed out that trees were not traffic lights and there is no such thing as leaves-go-yellow-orange-red change, the way traffic lights change colour. They just change to one colour and stay that way till they drop off the tree.

Oops.

Sorry, Connor.  

Why the Scots are such hardy people Part II

No match for Scottish winds.

'nuff said.

Why the Scots are such hardy people

Last week was awful weather-wise for us in Scotland.  It's end of May, right?  And this weekend is June, right?  And June = summer, right?  Floaty dresses, sandals, sunblock season right?

W R O N G.

I think it was last Thursday when residents of hilly areas woke up to a snowy blizzard.  I'm not quite so high up so all I got was hail.  It rained/drizzled all day long and the wind that evening was something, going woo-woo-woo and rattling every door and window in our house.  In fact, the wind was so strong that our house acted like a whistle at times.  Quite funny to hear our house sing out in the key of E flat each time a particularly strong wind blew.

Anyway, I found out on Friday from a fellow mum that the previous night's Beaver (pre-Scouts group) meeting had gone on as scheduled.  Out in the woods.  Where the kids (all aged 6yo and below) were looking for nests in the trees.  She knew for sure because it was her night to volunteer and almost all the kids turned up despite the awful weather.

These hardy Scots.

I can well believe it because on Thursday morning, I drove Connor to school.  Hail mah... how to walk, right?  And all around me were kids walking to school as usual, some in just shorts and the school jumper, hands jammed into pockets as they hurried to school.

This amuses me because back home in Malaysia, my brothers and I were all driven to school at the slightest sign of rain.  Schools would be crowded with parents in their cars on rainy days, dropping off their kids as close to the school building as they could so that they wouldn't get wet in the rain.  So I did the same with Connor.  If we were planning to go down to the pool to play, I would cancel everything if just one drop of rain fell from the sky.

And of course now we live in a country where the school policy is to chuck them outside to play in all weather unless it's really very very wet....

Life in the UK: The weather

I lived in the tropics for almost 40 years where the weather never changes.  It's either hot and wet or hotter and wetter.  Or less hot and less wet.  For FORTY damn years.  I was telling new friends here that even if the TV weather reports had been using the same weather map for the past 40 years, I wouldn't have known.

So coming to the UK where the weather constantly changes is very, very interesting for me.  I guess long-time residents are tired of it but for a newbie like me, I love it!

We'd spent the weekend in Liverpool visiting my in-laws.  Our drive back to where we live in Scotland takes approximately 5 hours.   Along the way, we experienced:
1.  sunshine and blue skies in Liverpool
2.  rain and clouds in Glasgow
3.  snow flurries close to Aberdeen

Isn't that just FANTASTIC!  All this in five hours!

I have actually experienced the same just on the short walk to and back Connor's school.  It takes me ten minutes to walk there but half an hour to walk back... because we always take our time walking back, looking at various interesting things along the way and talking about his school day.

On one day, I had blustery winds and a drizzle on my way there.  Great.  Once I arrived at school, the clouds parted and it was bright sunshine.  The sun promptly dived behind the clouds once we arrived home and by the time Connor's post-school snack was ready, it was snowing.

No wonder people talk about the weather all the time in the UK.

Is it spring yet?

The first of March is officially the first day of spring in the UK for the weather forecasters.  It doesn't mean automatic sunshine, I suppose they pick a date so that they can do weather records easily.

Two weeks ago, our little corner of Scotland was bathed in brilliant sunshine.  It was absolutely beautiful weather.  Temperatures were about 8C, there was no wind, lovely sun all day long.  I thought spring was here.

And of course the weather changed.  It's been snowing since Sunday.  Little light flurries of powdery white stuff from the sky.   This is what the view from our room looked like yesterday at 7am after it'd snowed all day and night the day before.

I love snow because it makes everything look so pretty and magical.  Two years ago, we spent our first Christmas in the UK and there was a light dusting of snow when we visited Glasgow.  I'd marvelled at how enchanted everything looked with a bit of snow on it.

There are some downsides to snow of course.  There's that scraping snow and ice off cars bit that I hate.  I've learnt the trick now - start the car, leave it running for a while so that it can warm up before trying to scrape anything off.  Makes the snow and ice slide off easier.

New snow is pretty but once it melts, it gets all slushy and muddy and ugh.. wet shoes, wet socks, wet jeans, wet gloves, wet hands!  I learnt the hard way that you can't wind down your car window when it's been sitting out in the snow overnight.  Even opening the car door was tough... haha!

I've also had to learn how to drive in snow and ice.  Just be careful, drive slow and drive in the lowest gear possible.  Don't rev your car, it only makes your wheels lose their grip and spin.  If you can't move, ease off the accelerator and then apply it gently.  The council here has been very efficient, gritters and snow ploughs have been out sharp and gotten the main roads all cleared of snow so it's not too bad.

I'm sitting here in the day room, looking out into my back garden and there's big fat flakes of snow swirling around.  It makes me feel like I'm living in a snow globe.

As a tropical baby, I'm enjoying this.  So is Connor who keeps asking "Mummy, can we have Christmas tree and presents now?"  Born and raised in the tropics so far, my son thinks snow = Christmas.  I feel terrible telling him there aren't any presents for now!

Floods and hailstorms in KL

Due to personal reasons, I have decided to stay back in KL for the time being until we finally pack up end of Apr and go off to Jakarta for good. This means poor Dear Hubby will have to shuttle between the two cities for the time being. Never mind. Each time he comes home, he gets a real royal welcome and I fuss over him for days.
So this means I'll be a little short of Jakarta stories until next month. *sigh*

Anyway, KL has been hit by really bad rains these past few days. I was caught in one yesterday afternoon after having lunch with an old colleague, M. The skies opened again today and the lightning was really, really close to my apartment here. Yikes. It's 7pm now and the rain has finally stopped.

I saw this online at The Star today about floods and hailstorms in KL. While the flash floods news is nothing new to KL-ites, the bit about hailstorm was pretty intriguing. I've never had that happen to me, I've never seen hail in my life. But what was most intriguing was that a resident actually collected some of them and ate them because they're supposed to be good for health! Eh??? After it's gone through all that dust and pollution and whatever sulphuric acid in the environment, you pick it up and eat the thing???