It has snowed. I knew it was going to snow, in fact I’d be surprised if anyone in the south east of England didn’t know. I got up early to check out the scene outside and to check the travel news. Outside it was all white. Beautiful.

The travel report was OK. My train operator said it had run trains all night and was doing its best this morning to minimise disruptions caused by the weather. The National Rail website was taking a hammering, but when it finally loaded the prognosis was fair, so off I set.

It was cold but beautiful. I eventually arrived at the station, covered in snow, to be presented with a board of unspecified delays. The announcements progressed something like this:

• “We are sorry to report that you train has been delayed, more information when we get it.”
• “An update for you, your train is running approx 5 minutes late. This is due to, well… obviously, snow.”
• “I’m very sorry to report that your train is running 15 minutes late… due to that pesky snow stuff.”
• “Sorry about this, but your train is running approx 29 minutes late. I’m not sure why, but… and this is only a guess… it might have something to do with the snow.”
• “Erm, right, Really sorry about this but I don’t know when its going to be here. The Phones have gone down. All I know is that its very delayed, and at last report it was last seen in the Hitchin area (miles away), and was in a queue with 4 other trains. If you can go home, I’d do that. Obviously I personally can’t, unfortunately. More news… if we get any. Umm, sorry.”

Well, at least they were trying. The few people who bothered to try to get to work were in quite high spirits. Its probably the most smiles I’ve had in one morning. I decided to head home. There were a lot of families out playing in the snow which was quite touching. Seems like a lot of people abstained from work today. Very sensible. I did encounter one industrious kid on the way home who was playing in the snow with his sister.

God knows how he’s going to throw that snowball, but its impressive none the less.