My OH decided I wasnt fit to drive alone to work!! so I was coddled, having Jake & Whistler with us we decided to stop half way there and he would do a walk in to exercise the dogs (be patient Im getting there!)
We stopped in a laybye and I could not start the truck, so I decided to walk, had Whistler with me so I walked up hill and down hill about a mile, nice. Got right to the forecourt of work and fell over, Whistler was pulling to great everyone waiting for me.  My lovely workmen and husband picked me up and gave me tea. Now I have a huge knee! sore hand where I put it out to save myself and (dare I say) a sore bum and hip). So all of you please be careful....  Im feeling a bit worse for wear.

Poor you... I've now fallen over as well where the snow has become compacted ice..

I'm snowed in and no 4x4 can even get to us either,i'm sure they'll close the road now to prevent any idiots trying to get through. Have a few abandoned cars up here too..

ooh, you poor thing, you'll be so sore tomorrow as well :-(  My DH doesn't want me driving anywhere in this either.  We've got so much ice under the snow where all the rivers flooded before Christmas that going out of our gate would just be madness :-(

I fell over the other morning, smack on my bottom & that was in the garden (with no onlookers fortunately as I was in my dressing gown, overcoat & wellies :-O)

Not much fun this snow, but I've never been one for enjoying the delights it seems to give everyone initially (before they get really fed up with being stuck, cold etc). 

I do sympathise. Its absolutely treacherous out and about. My son went off to work and skidded onto a roundabout. Luckily the other cars were going slow so they stopped for him. A girl came into work after sliding in the car in the ice. shes only just passed her test so she must have been terrified. Best thing is to hibernate until all this is over.

Need to get to Tesco tonight..taking a deep breath and crossing my fingers

I hope you will soon be feeling better,it shakes you up a bit when you fall...worse when you are over 50 like me.

I have not driven my 4x4 as hubby said best to wait with bad weather, my son has 4x4 aswell and he got all the shopping today for me.
I think men think we uncapable of driving in the snow......i went dog walking in the snow instead....much better option i think.

Yes Im 54,  I went shopping on Tuesday to Sainsbury's and there was hardly anything on the shelves. I was more annoyed with falling so close to safety I had walked about a mile and slipped about ten paces away. Still ok so far but a warm bath later will be appreciated.

Its meant to be really cold to night so all Cder's wrap up warm on the night pee walkies!!!

> I think men think we uncapable of driving in the snow

Tell me about it, like they do it all the time of course so they just know how to do it better than us// MEN!!!

My father is in the process of fixing his spare 4x4 and he seems to think i may have an issue in driving it, why i ask why??

In the last snow when it became very icey i was fine driving on it, i just had issues when the road turned into a massive snow drift and a normal car which is low to the ground couldn't hack it...

Had to ask my father about this and he said it was 'fact' that women can't drive on ice, snow and mud as well as men.. I asked where these so called facts have come from and for him to prove it, low and behold he can't and he gets annoyed..

We live on the top of a hill and its very icy going down,i will get hubby or son to take  the car to the bottom tomorrow..so i can get the correct shopping i want...my son came back with 3 bags of potatos...i dont know why....he said there maybe a shortage.

Thinking of his belly i think.

Yes the temp is really supposed to be dropping tonight so all the compacted snow will become ice then supposed to snow again the weekend - lovely.
My Dad spends hours telling anyone who will listen about the winter of 1963......if anyone speaks.

The ice is 3 inches thick on our road from top to bottom. No attention from the council who seemed to ignore the fact that we had snow until they got snowed in today at the main offices! I dont know how anyone could clear our road now anyway, Im just hoping for a layer of fresh snow to give some grip. On the plus side the girls are loving it (not the old grumpy boys tho!) Braved it for the past two days with the girls pulling me on my walking belt, with bungee shock absorber, gang and necklines,harnesses etc. They looked the right little wannabe sled dogs, but made walking up the icey hill alot easier. Coming back down is a bit sketchy, but ive already got my hand in plaster so at least thats one limb safe from any further breakages. Just want a snowboard now and im sorted for transport!

Kazz you pain I remember the snow of 1963 me and me bruffers got paid sixpence for pushing cars up the hill where we lived, them was the days bottled milk, the crona man, bread delivered in baskets!!

We have had no post in Winchester for a week, no rubbish collections - in our days we would have delivered the post barefoot!!!

All joking aside Im a bit sore after my fall, the dogs are loving it and luckily my OH's truck is a Ford Ranger Wildtrak so we shove it in low ratio 4 wheel drive and its fine. I will see if my neighbours need anything for the kids at Sainsbury's tonight before we go, so a plea anyone that can shop check neighbours who are old or have babies to see if they need anything.  Knowing you lot I know Im talking to the converted.

Today I drove in myself no sweat (Ive been driving longer than he has anyway!)
It was ok, drop it in first and it will get itself down a hill! Sheet ice up our hill and all the mercs and jags parked at the bottom covered in snow teh hee!!

its terrible here too, we have just removed the huge icicles from our house, they are very pretty but would cause injury if they fall, some were the size of my 7 year old son! We have adventured out once this week as milk was not available at our local shops, everywhere is very slippery.  Today i have cleared some of my front path and patio with a spade and salt so that my dogs and kids do not injure themselves, i have never known weather like this in the south!

I remember the bad winter snow of 1964/65 i was nearly 7 and remember walking all the way to a school outside of where i lived till we got a district swap, it was still open.....wonder why there didnt seem to be any 'snow' problems then or was it because i was a child?

it was still open.....wonder why there didnt seem to be any 'snow' problems then or was it because i was a child?

i think in those days there were very few cars and most teachers etc were local and probably walked to work

I'm assuming that the teachers whose schools are closed will still get paid and will not have to make up their hours  ?!  Unlike a lot of workers in other jobs.........

it was still open.....wonder why there didnt seem to be any 'snow' problems then or was it because i was a child?
Ah those were the days when teaching was a vocation and the most important thing in teachers' lives was taking care of their 'charges'.  Most of my teachers were either men or spinster women and so their work and not their families were their priority. 

Children were used to walking 3 miles each way to school in all weathers - you didn't get a bus pass until after 3 miles.  The only time I remember my school being closed was after 3 days of the boiler not working and the school was getting colder and colder. :)
Times change, and not always for the better...........

The only time I remember my school being closed was after 3 days of the boiler not working and the school was getting colder and colder.
Times change, and not always for the better...........

Those were in the days prior to the "sue anyone and everyone" culture.

Our school closed for the first time on Friday. Myself and several other members of staff were in for 6:45am on that day to start clearing and salting paths. As fast as we cleared and gritted we couldn't keep up with clearing the snow coverage and at 8:00am, having had 5 phone calls from staff who live over 30 miles away and were unable to come in the decision was made to close the school. There were no guarantees that we would be able to provide the minimum ratio of staff to pupils nor be able to provide clear ground for the pupils etc to walk on and as Health and Safety policies have  to be at the forefront of all decisions nowadays we had to close our school.

I spent a further hour on the phone answering calls from parents and the vast majority of them had already decided they weren't going to send their children in anyway. I can guarantee that on Monday we will have some parents that will put in a complaint about the school closure but can also guarantee that, if we hadn't closed, there would be parents complaining about that instead. You can't win in those situations :-(

I see that there's a call for 'snow days' to be added on at the end of term to make up for the shortfall in teaching time.

My daughter lives in Connecticutt - where they have snowfalls of 16"+ - so they are all accustomed to it, and don't go into panic mode the same way as we do over here.   They build into the timetable/calandar contingencies for "snow days" - up to 13 - and the summer term accordingly ends later/earlier depending upon how many snow days have accrued.  

They will have other days when the school open 1 1/2 hours later (to enable staff to get in) - and parents are notified of this by 7am in the morning.   I don't know whether their weather forecasting is more specific than we have here, but they know about the snow days by 10pm the evening before.

If they have an accident in the snow and have not got winter tyres on, their insurance is invalid!

My d-i-l got made to take her snow days as annual leave (health authority) - they live on a hill along a lane so it was impossible to get out the first day anyway.  She works too far away to walk.  When I was teaching I would walk or wait for a bus if they were still running rather than chance the car.  Usually by the time I got to work all the children were sent home anyway so I had to struggle back home again.  As for heating - I remember portable gas heaters being fetched into the classroom to keep the school open.  Of course when I started teaching there were still schools with coal fires with huge guards around.  The milk bottles would be lined up along the guard to melt the frozen milk.  Children would sit in damp wellies all day because they never brought anything to change into.

I particularly remember one snow week - first week back to work - the schools were closed for a whole week.  The authorities decided that we would work half term instead.  One of the unions objected and took the week off anyway.  My union worked and being a supply teacher at the time I was told that under no circumstances should I take time off.  I was placed in a comprehensive (being a primary teacher this was difficult enough filling in for some subjects anyway) and I had flu that week - that was dreadful trying to keep children in order - and being ill with nothing to teach - supply teachers were really left on their own to struggle - no paper, no pens, nothing. 

As for heating - I remember portable gas heaters being fetched into the classroom to keep the school open.  Of course when I started teaching there were still schools with coal fires with huge guards around.  The milk bottles would be lined up along the guard to melt the frozen milk.  Children would sit in damp wellies all day because they never brought anything to change into.

And we all survived without the asthma and allergies that the majority of children seem to have these days.... :)