Snow falls in London
February 4, 2009 – 5:40 pmA friend of mine who lives in Hong Kong posted a status on the ubiquitous facebook yesterday. She lived in London for a while and to quote, “the snow in London just means broken down tubes”.
This got me thinking about the day I’d had on Monday and the photos I’d seen of peoples impromptu days off. I just had to respond to her status:
It means a lot more than broken down tubes. It gave the city a timeless aura - we haven’t seen London in snow like this since 1991 - lost childhood memories drifted into the here and now. Across the city the recurrent doom and gloom was lifted for a day - most people got the day off to spend with family and friends - making snow men, snowball fights, slushing around in warm cosy winter clothes. Londonites were smiling at each other for no reason other than their world was transformed for a day. The white out happened on a Sunday night / Monday morning after the first payday since Christmas. Everyone was hungover after celebrating getting through a pretty hellish month.
Monday was magical - the kind of surprising, unexpected experience that comes so rarely when you’re past your childhood years.
