Day that London cried..

Moved to Coventry in September last year from the hustle and bustle of London. Kinda missed that buzz of London until today..when the the media reported that London had ground to a standstill. The reason, of course, being the heavy snow which meant the roads, rail and air could not operate as anticipated. For me, however, it brought bad memories.

Six years ago, I left work at 21.30hrs and boarded a bus home to Kingsbury, London. That day had witnessed some heavy snow and there was a limited bus service in parts of London. The bus struggled somewhat but i was confident that we would make it to Kingsbury. The snow became too heavy when we got to Wembley and the bus halted...it could not go any further. The bus driver shouted through his intercom that everyone had to disembark. I thought for a minute how i was to get to Kingsbury when there were no ordinary cars, except certain 4 by 4s, nor buses that were operating. I could not even afford to worry my wife, who was then heavily pregnant, to come and pick me up as there was no way our car could get there.

I had to brace the cold...there should another word for 'cold' to describe the chill on that day! I started walking..it was 5 miles! The pavement was extremely slippery and my shoes were not gripping well. I slid from side to side. I had not dressed warm..when i left home, it was a normal London day in winter. I started feeling the chill through every part of my body. For a moment, i thought i was dying! I knew that if i didn't get home in 10 minutes or so, that would be the end of me. I phoned wifey to eh..wish her..eh..some goodbyes..but before i could utter any words, i saw a few cars driving slowly about 1.5 km from my home. I asked wifey to pick me up. Getting into the car and seeing my pregnant wife was the best thing that could ever happen. My wife gave birth 2 months later to a beautiful baby girl. Well, we have another daughter now 6 years later.

I am sure there are many people today who are re-living my ordeal of 6 years ago and would not be as lucky as i was. I am also sure that this can be prevented through gritting of roads by the councils concerned. The preparation can save lots of lives. Lack of preparation can also have economic repercussions. Today, the economy lost about 1.2 billion pounds. I am sure gritting does not amount to that figure.