December 21, 2009

  • Snow snow go away

    Not that the snow hasn't been very exciting, but when it looks as though it might interfere with me getting home for Christmas, I would rather it made a swift retreat.

    I was supposed to teach a private lesson today. It started snowing again about an hour before I had to leave. By the time I got to the bus stop to wait for my bus it was pelting the stuff down. The bus didn't turn up for 20 minutes. It then proceeded very very very slowly through the rammed traffic. It's usually a 15 minute bus journey. 20 minutes after getting on, we were still pretty much on the same road as I got on. I normally get picked up at 4.50pm and it was already 5pm (when the lesson is meant to start). I didn't have the number to get hold of either of the families, so I had to text my tutor (the aunt of one of my pupils), first of all to say that I was going to be late, and then a bit later to say that I was giving up. When we eventually arrived at the station, I gave up with the rest of the journey and got off. There wasn't going to be any point sitting on the bus for another half an hour, only to get there and do a late lesson and then have the same trouble getting back. They don't pay me enough to make it worth that!!

    Anyway, while I was at the station, I had a look at the train situation as on the bus some people had been saying that all the trains were cancelled. It wasn't quite that bad, but there are severe delays on all of them. I'm not entirely sure what the forecast is for Wednesday because according to the BBC it's similar to today (heavy snow), but according to meteo.it it isn't going to snow on Weds. Who knows! My train is early enough to leave me plenty of time to get to the airport even with delays, but there's also the bus to factor in, without starting to worry about the fact that Milan Linate (where I am flying from) was closed for a while today, as was Gatwick! Oh joy....

    Not a lot to be done except keep fingers crossed that it will all be okay. I don't mind being delayed, so long as I do actually get home, and preferably on the 23rd!  Today's equivalent flight of the one I'll be getting on Weds was about 3 hours late arriving, but at least it did....