More snow...

I woke up this morning at 6.30 am to silence and a world of white. We have had snow, real snow, for the first time since I came to live in Manchester some twenty years ago. Crisp, clean, white, cold and deep.

After helping my neighbour across the road push her car (along with 4 other pushers) back into the drive where she had moved it from I thought about going into work. After ten seconds or so I stopped thinking about it. The snow is ten inches deep and it continues to snow.

The airport is closed, Holly's school (5 mins up the road) is closed, Gaynor's college is closed and the car park of the building where I work is closed - Manchester is at a standstill.

In another age we would have called this 'snowed in', perhaps we still do, but back then 'snowed in' meant 'stopped world' - so, isn't it amazing that within five minutes I can take a photo on my camera phone, write a blog post, e-mail my colleagues, and upload it all to Twitter and Facebook from the relative warmth of my kitchen.

The wonders of the modern world.