On Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:46:30 +0000, F news@nowhere wrote:

That message has been there for ever, not just over the snow period (aka
'Winter').

No - it was working (albeit rather asthmatically) last week. If they
could get funding for a schoolboy to fix their site it's quite useful,
allowing you to look at the motorway cameras output and matrix board
displays.

On Wed, 06 Jan 2010 10:46:02 +0100, Neil wrote:

Whilst I may be in Switzerland and need winter tyres to comply with the
law (and stay mobile) doesn't change the fact that a set of steel rims
and winter tyres can be had for about £180 for a Vectra and then all of
this hassle would go away - I put my wheels on in November long before
I travel to CH and only swap back when convenient after my return in May
as the tyres work in summer too (just wear a bit faster).

Yep, we usually leave the snow tyres on all year on the car - it doesn't
seem to impact grip during the warmer months, and they seem to wear at
such a slow rate that it probably works out cheaper than having two sets
of wheels (and far less hassle).

Chains are only £40 in French supermarkets (Swiss are dearer)

Not allowed chains where I am, or studded tyres, but a set of snow tyres
does the job well enough.

The only time the tyre or wheel combination fails is when the snow is so
deep the car airdam acts as a plough and stops progress [2]

Yep! Ours will run through 6" or 7" of snow OK; more than that and it's
very slow going. Thankfully they're good about keeping the roads clear
here, and one of our neighbours keeps coming over and ploughing the
driveway out.

cheers

Jules

On Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:48:34 +0000, Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Tue, 5 Jan 2010 23:03:29 -0000, OG wrote:

A train leaves Portsmouth & Southsea on Thursday morning (10:52), due to
arrive Preston at 15:38 (via London Waterloo and Euston) with a single
ticket costing £91.60.

To avoid your having to drive 500+ miles there and back it sounds like a
bloody bargain.

Aye, cost about £60 in fuel alone, assuming 40 mpg. You'd also be
hard pressed to drive it sensibly, coffee and pee breaks, in the
4h46m of the train.

Yes, but taking the car is way more fun :-)

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "The Medway Handyman"
saying something like:

Watching the London news tonight made me laugh. Reports from journo's all
over the UK all basically saying "its snowing". A few claimed "the area is
cut off" which makes one wonder how they got there.

What made me laugh this morning was a journalist townie walking over the
snowy road to a bridge and pointing at a heron, saying "And there's a
heron desperately seeking shelter". Riiiight... the heron was simply
standing in the middle of the river looking for
fish/frogs/condoms/whatever they eat.

On Wed, 06 Jan 2010 10:59:07 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
But people just accepted that the whole country needed to get off its
arse and get itself moving, so we did.

Couldn't agree more with all of that... people are way too ready to expect
everyone else to sort their problems for them, rather than doing a bit of
work themselves.

Get shovelling you lazy *******s!

Which reminds me, I've still got 150' of foot-deep snow to clear out so
that the propane delivery truck can get through. Why they put the tank
waaaay round the back of the house, I don't know! :-)

cheers

Jules

On Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:13:13 +0000, Peter Parry wrote:

If they could get funding for a schoolboy to fix their site it's quite
useful, allowing you to look at the motorway cameras output and matrix
board displays.

Doesn't trafficengland.com do that which I thought was the "official"
Highways Agency portal for this info? Mind you that was saying no
maps too busy last night, oh still is...

--
Cheers
Dave.

On Wed, 06 Jan 2010 10:55:52 +0000, Tim W wrote:
I vaguely recall that my school was probably only closed for about 1 day
ever due to people not being able to get in. It did close a few other days
in bad weather, but that was due to the heating breaking down (ah, council
maintained boilers....)

These days, it seems to be several days each year. Trouble is half the staff
in our local school live miles away and the half that live locally can't
open the school, presumably because they can't technically cover all the
required functions.

To be fair, that happens here too sometimes, even though we *know* we're
going to be snow-covered for several months of the year. I suppose that
below a certain number of teachers, they can't run the whole school (as
you say) - but merging classes doesn't really help as it diverts too much
from the planned teaching to really be useful; it's no great loss just to
shut the place.

What we do have are quite a lot of late starts, where they'll open the
school a couple of hours late. More often than not, that's due to the cold
rather than the snow (pretty much all the kids get bussed in to school
here, and they don't want them standing out and waiting for the bus
when it's -30 out)

cheers

Jules

Jules gurgled happily,
sounding much like they were saying:

Yep, we usually leave the snow tyres on all year on the car - it doesn't
seem to impact grip during the warmer months, and they seem to wear at
such a slow rate that it probably works out cheaper than having two sets
of wheels (and far less hassle).

I couldn't be dealing with the winter tyres through the summer - not only
is there less grip, but there's a lot more road noise, and the ride's
harsher.

Meanwhile, since the snow outside here is about up to the front bumper,
I'm staying put...

On Wed, 06 Jan 2010 11:46:23 +0000, ARWadsworth wrote:
I remember my secondary school sending everyone home at dinnertime in
December 1986. The heating worked it was just the snow.

The problem there is if it's predicted to fall enough that come time to go
home it's too deep for anyone to come and pick their kids up (or for the
buses to run) - having to keep kids in the school overnight and feed
them all might be a bit of a nightmare.

I've seen them close early once like that over here, but then we did get
about 2' of snow in 12 hours so it was understandable (just about every
business shut early, too)

Bob Eager gurgled happily, sounding much like they
were saying:

The problem ain't the snow or the ice, it's the poor idiots who never
got taught to drive on them.

And the fact that most of the 4x4 mob think 4WD is a universal panacea.
All they do is spin more wheels, getting even less adhesion than in a
2WD...

But it gets even funnier when they DO get it moving, then find they've
got no braking or cornering grip.

On Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:14:38 +0000, TheOldFellow wrote:
The HGV mob are not any better at driving in it,
but create bigger blockages.

Hmm, what year was it when the M11/A14 ground to a standstill and lots of
people were stuck there for hours? I was still in the UK then, and have
some nice photos of HGVs - when it was already clear that things were
going to get very ugly - trying in vain to get up an ungritted slip-road
and off the motorway.

A couple had already fallen off the edge of the road (it was one of those
that loops around and goes over a bridge across the motorway) and several
more had simply ground to a halt and were partially blocking the road.

By 8 or 9pm nothing was moving on that entire road - it was
standstill traffic all the way (I knew a route through back-roads, but
could still see the main road)

cheers

Jules

GB
wibbled on Wednesday 06 January 2010 13:58

Tim W wrote:

I do believe the 80's was the start of national gayness. It just got
worse since then,

I was really impressed today that our Postie came out and delivered our
post in this weather. The newspaper did not make it, but he did. Nobody
else was out.


JN Random courier turned up today with a package from Rapid too - I
congratulated him.


--
Tim Watts

You know you need more insulation when the snow blanket on the roof makes
the house 3 degrees warmer...

On Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:57:54 +0000, Adrian wrote:

Bob Eager gurgled happily, sounding much like they
were saying:

The problem ain't the snow or the ice, it's the poor idiots who never
got taught to drive on them.

And the fact that most of the 4x4 mob think 4WD is a universal panacea.
All they do is spin more wheels, getting even less adhesion than in a
2WD...

But it gets even funnier when they DO get it moving, then find they've
got no braking or cornering grip.

Axtually, I was mainly thinking of when they *are* moving; they're a
menace, with that lack of grip.

--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

in 251238 20100105 230329 "OG" wrote:

To be honest, with the weather the way it is, you would be well advised to
consider other methods.

A train leaves Portsmouth & Southsea on Thursday morning (10:52), due to
arrive Preston at 15:38 (via London Waterloo and Euston) with a single
ticket costing �91.60.

Avoid London. I go via Winchester / Southampton when travelling NW from Pompey.

On Wed, 6 Jan 2010 10:16:02 +0000, chris French wrote:

In message , Dave
writes
JimK wrote:
On 5 Jan, 20:51, Dave wrote:
I have to travel from Preston Lancs. to Portsmouth to bring my wife back
home. I have until Friday night to get her back.

Due to the severe weather we are experiencing and the short time I have
to prepare, can anyone recommend a web site that will be up to date,
quite quickly, on road conditions and closures due to the weather
conditions please?

Dave
train?

When was the last time you booked a train ticket at the last moment? It
would cost her an arm and a leg to get home.


According to Trainline.com, an off peak single from Portsmouth to
Preston costs £91.50 (as long as she can avoid travelling at certain
times by the look of it - probably those times which hit peak evening
London departure restrictions)). Not cheap, no, but the fuel for a 500+
mile round trip alone is not insignificant.

To pick an easy figure to work out, At 45 mpg it would cost over £50 in
petrol - and many vehicles will do a lot less on that sort of trip, plus
of course tyre wear and other wear and tear on the car.

When you use your private vehicle for a business trip, the Inland Revenue
consider that allowing for wear and tear, maintenance, insurance, fuel,
depreciation, etc., you are not making a profit when during a year, you
claim 40p a mile for the first 10,000 miles and 25p a mile thereafter.

SteveW

On Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:56:13 +0000, F wrote:

On 06/01/2010 09:14 TheOldFellow wrote:

Where (and when) do you go in a typical British Year to learn
the skills to do this?

Find a large, snow covered, *empty* car park. Easier said than done, I
know, but that's what I was encouraged to do when I learned to drive.

Great fun!

This is a very sensible suggestion. Unfortunately, due to the idiots who
**** about in car parks durng the evenings and nights, the law now treats
car parks to which the public have access (such as supermarket and council
ones) as public highways, so any passing plod looking to improve his stats
can nick you for it. Stupid isn't it?

SteveW

On Tue, 5 Jan 2010 23:28:45 +0000, (Steve Firth)
wrote:

Neil wrote:

Whilst I realise you lot in the UK think you have more snow than I have
in this bit of Switzerland, it really isn't too hard to get about-ever!

Hmm when I lived in Swissland the Golf Syncro was the most popular car
in the area, despite having a really, really, tiny boot. Put M&S tyres
on it and it would belt up the Jura.


I had one of those. With the right tyres, it had great traction.


OTOH the nice big cosy 4x4 will keep going when the **** cars are
stacked up at the side of the road. What's guilt?


It's a pity that more 4x4 drivers aren't more aware of the laws of
physics, and that while traction is usually much improved over a 2
wheel drive car, braking and cornering might not be.

On Wed, 06 Jan 2010 08:49:20 -0600, Jules wrote:

On Wed, 06 Jan 2010 10:55:52 +0000, Tim W wrote:
I vaguely recall that my school was probably only closed for about 1 day
ever due to people not being able to get in. It did close a few other days
in bad weather, but that was due to the heating breaking down (ah, council
maintained boilers....)

These days, it seems to be several days each year. Trouble is half the staff
in our local school live miles away and the half that live locally can't
open the school, presumably because they can't technically cover all the
required functions.

To be fair, that happens here too sometimes, even though we *know* we're
going to be snow-covered for several months of the year. I suppose that
below a certain number of teachers, they can't run the whole school (as
you say) - but merging classes doesn't really help as it diverts too much
from the planned teaching to really be useful; it's no great loss just to
shut the place.

Unfortunately it is a great loss. Even keeping the kids there and just
allowing them to play is worthwhile. Take my son's primary school - 250
kids can't go to school (no notice at all), so probably a couple of hundred
parents suddenly have to find alternative childcare or take the day off
(now three days) damaging businesses. Luckily my office is shut and if it
wasn't my parents are not far away, but others are not so lucky.

People arrange their working lives around school drop off and pick up times
(my wife works part time specifically for this reason) and sudden changes
are a major problem for many.

SteveW

On Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:56:54 +0000, Adrian wrote:

Jules gurgled happily,
sounding much like they were saying:

Yep, we usually leave the snow tyres on all year on the car - it doesn't
seem to impact grip during the warmer months, and they seem to wear at
such a slow rate that it probably works out cheaper than having two sets
of wheels (and far less hassle).

I couldn't be dealing with the winter tyres through the summer - not only
is there less grip, but there's a lot more road noise, and the ride's
harsher.

Yes, I am blessed with US roads - loose crap all over them, bumps and dips
and rough surfaces aplenty :-/ I'm used to road noise and harsh ride, and
on that loose stuff I think the deeper tread does a good job at 'cutting
through' to the actual surface beneath (hence the comment about my not
noticing grip being any worse with M+S)

There are quite a few unpaved roads around here that are just dirt, too
(good fun to drive on, but hell on paintwork)

Malcolm wrote:
Dave wrote:

snip

Thanks for that. Daughter lives on the border between Southsea and
Eastney, on the coast.

Malcolm, living in Fareham but brought up and taught to drive in Co.
Durham

Ah! So you know about snow? Not many do these days. :-)
Locals are clueless, they think the faster they can spin the driving
wheels, the faster they can get up the hill. It makes it very
difficult for any decent driver to follow them.

Dave
Fareham/Gosport has been gridlocked since about 4pm. I guess that once
the gritters can get through the main roads will be OK but as for the
minor roads... The one positive thing is that the south of Portsea
Island is very much influenced by the sea so there may be very little
snow there, and if there is it should disappear relatively quickly.
Surely you can get reports on the last part of the journey from SWMBO.
CEEFAX can give you an overall view of the main routes

I very nearly did until I looked at my morning paper, Berkshire and
Northern Hampshire look like getting the worst of the snow. I'll phone
the wife about 8-00 pm and get update. I can't see the roads I will be
using being a problem, I'm just worried that there might be tailbacks,
or road closures, like there were yesterday.
Thanks for the other info.

Dave

On Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:43:30 +0000, Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:
Riiiight... the heron was simply standing in the middle of the river looking for
fish/frogs/condoms/whatever they eat.

not journalists, unfortunately. *chomp*

Steve Firth wrote:
snip

More point to all the people who flagged me down and earnestly told me I
would "never get that big thing up/down that hill" every one of them was
wrong.

I'll bet it had Rover somewhere in its name :-)
Or it was a tractor.

Dave

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
JimK writes:
On 5 Jan, 20:51, Dave wrote:
I have to travel from Preston Lancs. to Portsmouth to bring my wife back
home. I have until Friday night to get her back.

I would change your plans.
In my bit of Hampshire, we had 5 inches in 3 hours this evening.
It's slowed down now, but I suspect nothing is going to move for days.

It isn't the snow that bothers me, it is the tailbacks and road
closures. I see the M3 got shut yesterday, one of the roads I have to
use to get to the M27.

I'm going to pack the car with a crappy lappy and my Orange dongle so I
can log on and see what is happening.

Many thanks for the info.

Dave

Dave wrote:
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article
,
JimK writes:
On 5 Jan, 20:51, Dave wrote:
I have to travel from Preston Lancs. to Portsmouth to bring my wife
back
home. I have until Friday night to get her back.

I would change your plans.
In my bit of Hampshire, we had 5 inches in 3 hours this evening.
It's slowed down now, but I suspect nothing is going to move for days.

It isn't the snow that bothers me, it is the tailbacks and road
closures. I see the M3 got shut yesterday, one of the roads I have to
use to get to the M27.

I'm going to pack the car with a crappy lappy and my Orange dongle so I
can log on and see what is happening.

Many thanks for the info.

Dave
driving through falling snow is scary,
do you go fast in case there's a huge lorry coming up behind?
or stop and hope there isnt a huge lorry coming up beind?
[g]

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
(Andrew Gabriel) writes:
Seems to have increased to 11" overnight, and still snowing.

Oops, make that 9" (misconverted from cm)

:-) I have trouble with cm's, I cant convert them until I have
converted them into mm's and then inches :-)

I have never worked in cm's at any time in my life, though I had to
learn about mm's in 1978. Litres are a bit of a mystery as well, as the
aircraft fuel was measured in Kg's.

Cheers.

Dave

"Steve Firth" wrote in message
.. .
Neil wrote:

Whilst I realise you lot in the UK think you have more snow than I have
in this bit of Switzerland, it really isn't too hard to get about-ever!

Hmm when I lived in Swissland the Golf Syncro was the most popular car
in the area, despite having a really, really, tiny boot. Put M&S tyres
on it and it would belt up the Jura.

M&S (No, not the shop, just Mud + Snow tyres) will get an ordinary car
most places, add snow chains and everywhere is possible without recourse
to a Chelsea Tractor with the penalties of VED/MPG/CO2 and guilt...

OTOH the nice big cosy 4x4 will keep going when the **** cars are
stacked up at the side of the road. What's guilt?


Someone mention ****s?
Example of a nice big cosy 4X4:

http://www.edp24.co.uk/content/edp24...2016:40:42:897

mark

Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:14:05 +0000, Dave wrote:

My route will be Preston M6 to the M42 to the M40 to the A34 to the M3
to the M27 to the M275 and then through Portsmouth main roads to
Southsea.

Thats what TomTom said, personally I'd not use the M6 across the
north of Birmingham. It's better since the toll road but can still be
nose to tail 20mph stuff. I'd drop down the M5 then the M42. TomTom
says 4h14m 265 miles around the SW of B'ham v 4h12m 263 miles over
the north.

TomTom is a bit slow, isn't it? I have done that journey back home in 3
hours in a Montego estate :-)
At the time, I didn't let our son know, as he was in the navy then and
he would drive from there to the Lake District on Friday evening and go
back to his ship late Sunday night every weekend.

If I could I also avoid the M6 south of Manchester but you can't.
B-(

That looks very interesting, as it will make the journey shorter. Does
that short stretch of the M42 have those annoying gantries with speed
limits on?
TBH I have never had a problem with the M6 traffic in Birmingham, it has
always been in Staffordshire. I'll try the M5 tomorrow, but I won't use
it coming back, as the M6 slows to a crawl where the M5 joins it going
North.

The M6 S of Manchester is always a PITA until you get North of the M62.
What I don't like in that area is the part in Cheshire that has the
chevrons on the road, everyone slows down for them and when you have
been driving for so long and want to get home they are a PITA.

Many thanks for that info.

Dave

JimK wrote:
On 5 Jan, 20:51, Dave wrote:
I have to travel from Preston Lancs. to Portsmouth to bring my wife back
home. I have until Friday night to get her back.

Due to the severe weather we are experiencing and the short time I have
to prepare, can anyone recommend a web site that will be up to date,
quite quickly, on road conditions and closures due to the weather
conditions please?

Dave

train?

most "proper" such websites I checked today were bust or text only....

ps what happens on sat?

Sorry, I hast found out that I didn't answer that question. It's her
sisters birthday and at lunchtime I found out it had been cancelled due
to the conditions in the Oldham area.

Dave

dennis@home wrote:


"Dave" wrote in message
...
We usually get a mild winter.

The MET office predicted a barbecue summer and a mild winter.. this is
Murphy reminding us that their mathematical models aren't very good.

Or the met office proving it :-(

Dave

Cicero wrote:

It probably isn't the answer you want to hear and it may sound a bit harsh
but the plain truth is that 500+ mile round trip in the almost universally
bad weather conditions isn't worth it for a birthday party.

Common sense suggests that you should postpone the trip until conditions
improve as it really isn't an 'essential' journey. It might cost you more
than 'an arm and a leg' if you try it.

Unfortunately, she has to be back at work on Monday, so my options are
forget Thursday.

Forget Friday as the roads will be choked up, Saturday morning going
down is a possibility and coming home Sunday morning, but I don't yet
know what the forecast is until later tonight.

Thanks

Dave

george [dicegeorge] wrote:

If they have a phone (many do nowadays)
the younger sister should be phoning and begging her not to risk her
like (and yours, and others)
making an unnecessary journey.

She did, thankfully

Dave

chris French wrote:

According to Trainline.com, an off peak single from Portsmouth to
Preston costs £91.50 (as long as she can avoid travelling at certain
times by the look of it - probably those times which hit peak evening
London departure restrictions)). Not cheap, no, but the fuel for a 500+
mile round trip alone is not insignificant.

I rather value my balls, they are what makes me a man. If I suggest
that, I could lose them when I get her back home. :-((

To pick an easy figure to work out, At 45 mpg it would cost over £50 in
petrol - and many vehicles will do a lot less on that sort of trip, plus
of course tyre wear and other wear and tear on the car.

The old diesel can do the trip there and back on one tank, with fuel to
spare for about £55-00 now the chancellor has ripped us off again. :-(

VAT reduced to 15%. Duty on bear, wines and spirits increased. As well
as fuel duty being increased when VAT was reduced.

Anyone seen an announcement about the duty being reduced since January
the first? No? I wonder why.

Dave

F wrote:
On 06/01/2010 00:30 The Medway Handyman wrote:

Watching the London news tonight made me laugh. Reports from
journo's all over the UK all basically saying "its snowing".

You mean they noticed *and reported* there's a whole country outside
of the M25 car park?

Next you know they'll be sending Attenborough out to do a couple of
documentaries on the natives...

They do have a 'north of England' reporter :-)


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

Adrian wrote:
Steve Walker gurgled happily, sounding much
like they were saying:

Yes, but with the cost of another set of wheels

Cheap. Even brand new factory steel wheels are rarely more than £30 a
piece, but perfectly good used wheels are widely available.

and tyres

Don't forget you save the wear on the summer tyres.

and somewhere to store them for the summer

Hardly a big problem compared to the ****e most of us have stacked up
"just in case"...

In 25 years of driving, I've never encountered weather where I've
actually needed snow tyres to get through before

It's all about the increased safety margin throughout the cold weather,
though - winter tyres grip much better even on cold, dry tarmac below
about 5 deg.

That raises a question. Major roads around here (A6) have been gritted.
But I still find my ABS kicks in on an apparently clear road. The
temperature is only 0 degrees C.

WTF is going on? It can't be black ice. It's not cold enough.

Dave

Steve Walker wrote:
On Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:56:13 +0000, F wrote:

On 06/01/2010 09:14 TheOldFellow wrote:

Where (and when) do you go in a typical British Year to learn
the skills to do this?
Find a large, snow covered, *empty* car park. Easier said than done, I
know, but that's what I was encouraged to do when I learned to drive.

Great fun!

This is a very sensible suggestion. Unfortunately, due to the idiots who
**** about in car parks durng the evenings and nights, the law now treats
car parks to which the public have access (such as supermarket and council
ones) as public highways, so any passing plod looking to improve his stats
can nick you for it. Stupid isn't it?

How on earth can they do that? They are private property. At the worst,
they are only trespassing.

Dave

Bob Eager wrote:
On Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:14:38 +0000, TheOldFellow wrote:

The problem ain't the snow or the ice, it's the poor idiots who never
got taught to drive on them.

And the fact that most of the 4x4 mob think 4WD is a universal panacea.
All they do is spin more wheels, getting even less adhesion than in a
2WD...

They've certainly never learned how to drive with 4WD.

I had a very good chuckle over that.

Thanks.

Dave

Dave gurgled happily, sounding much like they
were saying:

It's all about the increased safety margin throughout the cold weather,
though - winter tyres grip much better even on cold, dry tarmac below
about 5 deg.

That raises a question. Major roads around here (A6) have been gritted.
But I still find my ABS kicks in on an apparently clear road. The
temperature is only 0 degrees C.

WTF is going on? It can't be black ice. It's not cold enough.

It's because the rubber in your stone cold tyres is failing to grip the
tarmac properly.

Neil wrote:

Whilst I realise you lot in the UK think you have more snow than I have
in this bit of Switzerland, it really isn't too hard to get about-ever!

M&S (No, not the shop, just Mud + Snow tyres) will get an ordinary car
most places, add snow chains and everywhere is possible without recourse
to a Chelsea Tractor with the penalties of VED/MPG/CO2 and guilt...

It's not just the mechanics of getting a car to go places. It's driving on
roads packed with people who don't know how to drive in the conditions etc.
So even if you are well equiped you will still have to navigate around
everyone else.


--
djc @work

"Dave" wrote in message
news
I have to travel from Preston Lancs. to Portsmouth to bring my wife
back home. I have until Friday night to get her back.

Due to the severe weather we are experiencing and the short time I
have to prepare, can anyone recommend a web site that will be up to
date, quite quickly, on road conditions and closures due to the
weather conditions please?

top posting corrected

Neil wrote:
de-lurk

Oh come on guys

Whilst I realise you lot in the UK think you have more snow than I have
in this bit of Switzerland, it really isn't too hard to get about-ever!

M&S (No, not the shop, just Mud + Snow tyres) will get an ordinary car
most places, add snow chains and everywhere is possible without recourse
to a Chelsea Tractor with the penalties of VED/MPG/CO2 and guilt...

neil

re-lurk

Just where in my post did I mention driving on snow? The journey I will
be making is on major trunk and motorway roads. Snow will not be a
problem on them.

I an far more bothered about road closures and bottlenecks.

I was born and brought up on the Western Pennine hills, so I know what
snow is about. We could get 5 foot drifts overnight there.

Go back into lurking please.

Dave

Tim Streater wrote:

And I may say that the 1963 conditions didn't stop me delivering
newspapers (I had a long round from Crawley up to near Gatwick on the
A23) *or* getting to school (which didn't close). Mind you, to be fair
we had something like 8" on New Year's Day which then took until March
to melt.

In that year, I was courting a girl and we didn't have much money. We
would sit on the wall outside her house and during that winter I would
slip my hand through her coat buttons and caress her breast, well, my
hand couldn't spread to both. People would walk past and didn't know
what we were up to. :-))

Dave