Great Western Coffee Shop

Oh help - I failed to note the site / URL for my source on this:



And from s Southern passenger site (ABC) commenting on it:


I have to admit as to being puzzled at the potential of four days of disruption on one TOC when the ones all around them are alerting for a maximum of two.   Are Southern the only ones being realistic, are they being opportunistic, or is Hayward's Heath the eye of the snowstorm?

Any excuse not to run trains and blame the weather. Feel for exasperated commuters in the South East and East England. Yes there’s been snow in places but not everywhere.

I take it the Trans SiberIan is running as usual despite a bit of snow?

To be fair to Southern, the forecast for all of southern England on Thursday, inc much of GWR land, is dreadful (and for Friday), so they may actually be being more realistic. In fact, on Friday, I suspect GWR will be particularly hard hit, which doesn't help my own travel plans for that day.  >:(

I thought I was being fair offering the options that they're the realistic one. Time will tell, and even then it's based on probabilities and approximations.   

Personally having Southampton on Friday, Taunton on Saturday and on to Manchester for Sunday, Pewsey on Monday and up and down between Swindon and Warminster on Tuesday and Wednesday, Bath on Thursday and Chippenham on Friday of next week, I can't help wondering how I might get on ...

Thursday/Friday does appear to be atrocious weather, but the orange warning today has always been for Kent, not Essex. Greater Anglian spokeslady on Breakfast hasjust said that there was aforecast NR received for 30cm of snow in Essex. Thats a foot of snow. NR need asking who supplied that forecast, coz its not materialised, & indeed the well-known forecasters haven't made anything like that forecast for Essex

I do think that TravelWatch SouthWest ought to be considering whether to cancel Saturday already....asking people of average ages (mostly retired & some with disability) to travel for what is really an unnecessary meeting is sensible looking at Fridays forecast...those on Advsnce tickets need to get them changed *before* date of travel or lose them.

Im sure cancelling the meeting won't change anyones work or leisure life...its for info only.

The forecast for Sunday onwards isfor higher temperatures ad a thaw....

Just gone through the radar from last night and it looks like Norfolk/Suffolk and Essex saw very few snow showers with Kent and East Sussex where the main snow is currently falling right where the Met put the Amber warning so good forecasting by them  :)

.............whereas in most other countries people just shrug their shoulders, put on an extra layer and get on with it, and the system doesn't seem to collapse like ours at the first sign of a snowflake.

An archived forecast (taken from an American based site!) issued last Friday says (my bolding):
So no foot of snow, but very hit and miss, which I guess makes it difficult to plan. Eastern England is fairly vague, but the forecasts firmed up on areas a bit later. In reality much of it appears further north than originally predicted.

Thursday and Friday has been more problematic as models haven't agreed on extent and area of snow, and have flip-flopped internally from run to run as well. For example some have pushed the bulk more westwards falling over Ireland. What does seem more likely now is that the cold weather could be all over by the end of the weekend, rather than extending further.

Check out @networkrail’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/networkrail/status/968168809340190721?s=09

NR suggesting that all of 2 inches of snow will be sufficient......

"as much as 5-10cm in places"  ::)

I got the now standard sarcastic texts from my sister in Scotland about a 'bit of snow'. They've had snow on a fairly regular basis since November but doesn't fill up the news headlines.

They wouldn't have got the classic 'wrong type of snow' as this is  ;D

I can recall a few years back everything grinding to a halt when I was in Frankfurt for 2cm of snow.

I'm sure you shared these thoughts with the secretary / chair?  That way they'll be able to take on board the member view and situation.    I am not a meteorologist - but it does look to me as is the main issues will be in the South East rather than the South West - and TWSW's covers Swindon to Penzance.   Clearly some of the transport that people use is trains from London, but we really shouldn't cancel / postpone a SW meeting because of weather in the next area across ...

Trains in Cornwall have frozen to a halt.

Some points on the camborne area reportedly frozen

The weather forecast I’ve just seen said turning mild in the southwest on Friday, that’ll melt anything that may happen!

Not helped by the lights on the booms at Roskear Level Crossing failing and a points problem restricting access out of Long Rock depot and platforms at Penzance.

Cost of obtainig & keeping equipment on standby is why everything falls over in the south at an inch of snow. Is it cost effective to have this equipment on standby when itmay likely only be needed twice in a decade? Or just put up with a coupleof days disruption every decade or so?

Ok, on your advise from a Diretor I won't raise it with the secretary. I hope there winon't be ice/snow in Taunton on Saturday. But I'' not asconfident as you obviously are

I think that most places cope as well as you'd expect given how often they experience snow.

Do you remember that Paris was severely disrupted by snow just three weeks ago? It was forecast as 5-10 cm, and that was generally what they got - it was reported as 10-20 cm, but most likely that was just the deepest patches. What really caused the chaos was the usual one: roads full of traffic so the gritters couldn't treat them. They banned all HGVs from Paris, and a few roads closed - worst was the D118 from Port d'Orléans out to Versailles, where 900 cars were stuck overnight on high ground in the Foret de Meudon.

SNCF Ile-de-France hoped to run well over half their trains, but some lines were much worse because so many drivers could not get in to work. They also had teams out defrosting points with gas torches, and generally kept the track open. But they did really have snow, so at the moment our railways do seem to be a bunch of - snowflakes?

Any snow immediately reduces the capacity of a road, so if it happens in a peak there are instant jams. We don't have any common understanding that, to prevent that, fewer cars should be on the roads.  That implies a lot of people saying "I'll stay in/wait/cancel a meeting" so others can move around - and who would? And it's not much easier for "them" - some authority - to impose that, even if they could invent a way of doing it.

Of course once snow is deep enough to fill some cars' ground clearance, it's proper 4WD and other special vehicles only, even on the flat. Last time we had that - just - I could cope once the snow stopped on fresh snow if there were no other cars about, or on a treated road even if busy. But heavy snow mid-afternoon, or a few cars not coping with lying snow, and you might as well give up.

This of course is another problem....20-30 years ago (only about 4 snow editions ago!), many staff lived local to their work - nowadays, most have a commute just to get to work....

Last time we had proper snow (in Cornwall, 2010) I drove Cornwall to Cardiff, the only issues I encountered were caused by other less capable cars/drivers getting in the way on hills where a run up was useful. I had a diesel Vectra back then.
I don’t believe I’ll be so successful this year, I’ve now a Bmw (rear wheel drive), which are infamously awful in icy conditions according to the Internet. It has struggled leaving my house on the hill in frost a couple of times so I suspect the Internet maybe right!

.....nothing much for the TOCs to worry about though.....

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/rail-operators-compensation-snow-disruption-network-rail-delays-travel-chaos-a8230106.html?amp&__twitter_impression=true

Some pretty heavy snow showers in Oxfordshire but just over the border into Wiltshire and next to nothing (so far).

(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/ietsnow.jpg)

There has been a dusting in Didcot :)

Then Didcot has stolen a march on my spring clean!

Thus far just the odd dusting here in South Somerset.

Bitterly cold though. I've bought Finn a nice thermal coat. Attached image of him modelling it at Lyme Regis a couple days ago.

Left work at marsh mills at 2100, lots of it settled and even the A38 had a settling across the carriageway between Forder Valley and manadon on the carriageway. Get to Weston Mill and not a sign of snow and wouldn’t believe there’s a fair bit settled a mile away

Looks cool (sic) but my 'guest cat' has firmly decided that my dressing gown, in a Terry Thomas stylie is not her hers alone Hmmm, this is not finished.

At least GWR didn't do what TfL (both London Overground and TfL Rail divisions) did, and have an early finish on Monday, late start on Tuesday and a reduced frequency (with some sections having no service at all) even after it became clear that the overnight snow would miss pretty much the whole of London ??? . Now tonight the eastern half of London will be having snow, and there has been a less extreme reduction in services. Yes I'm aware that Network Rail had some input there, but Greater Anglia seemed to have got services started earlier. Either way that entire mess has left London looking like a laughing stock not just in the UK but across the world.

Conversation around the TWSW board yesterday, and with the venue ... meeting goes ahead.  There are factors both ways, but significantly more logic in going ahead than in cancelling.  Consideration needs indeed to be taken for members (and has been); we routinely have a sprinkling of guests from other areas (North West, South East ...) and are mindful they may not be able to get there; suggestion is that they take no risks as (indeed, as the point was made) the meeting is unlikely to be life changing for them.

Steam Dreams have had to cancel their annual St David's Day trip from Paddington to Cardiff tomorrow (1st March) due to the weather.   

The scheduled loco 70013 Oliver Cromwell is stuck in Norfolk after being successfully repaired but the conditions in East Anglia meant it was unlikely to it could be moved to London in time.  The option of diesel haulage was considered but in view of the weather forecast the decision has been taken to postpone the trip until 14th June.  Oliver Cromwell will have been retired by then so another steam loco will be found.

Perhaps King Charles II?  :)

‘Blizzard conditions in London’ currently according to my local correspondent...

Certainly doesn't look very pleasant on Westminster Bridge

http://www.trafficdelays.co.uk/westminster-bridge-york-road-london-cctv-traffic-camera/ (http://www.trafficdelays.co.uk/westminster-bridge-york-road-london-cctv-traffic-camera/)

Yep coming down heavily in West London. The Amazon man still delivered a few minutes ago though.

Blizzard in City of London most of the morning - sunny spells now

NR have pulled their roadshows along the Berks & Hants for the rest of this week.

Line of showers going westwards, more or less following the GWML. Half way between Didcot and Swindon presently :)

Very light snow at Taplow earlier

http://newsthump.com/2018/02/28/trans-siberian-express-cancelled-due-to-pissing-itself-laughing-at-british-trains/

802 101 ran through Cornwall today. Westbound was ok but the return developed a 'horn fault' due to the freezing/snow conditions. 20 mph Camborne to Truro. A request to put it into the sidings at Truro was declined so it stayed on the mainline at platform 3 at Truro for 20 minutes whilst they attempted to defrost it! I wonder who pays for the delay to the 12.19, Hitachi or GB Railfreight?

I'd put that down to Hitachi, as a train failure. The IEP requirement is for climatic zone T1, which for trains means (in the LOC & PAS TSI) (-25°C to +40°C; nominal. The TSI makes the operation of audible warnings an explicit "must-do" for the whole climatic range.

The IEP reference is actually to BS EN 501251:1999 “Railway Applications - Environmental Conditions for Equipment – Part 1:Equipment on board rolling stock”, but I suspect the latest version of the TSI also calls that up as they have been replacing these explicit requirements by indirect references.

PADDINGTON STATION IS CLOSED

Paddington station is now closed due to severe weather, trains will terminate at Reading but also as far west as Bristol.
GWR advice: DO NOT TRAVEL

I can't actually get the GWR website to load but not sure if that's me or problems with my ISP?

Anyway assumed it wasn't a good day to travel :)

Presumably the server has been swamped. The home page may get a lot of hits from new visitors.

I got there but very s-l-o-w ... suspect "More passengers than usual requiring information at the same time".  As the server gets busy, some may get through, others not accepted onto a queue, and others may be queued and timed out either at server, intermediate relay or client (browser) level.

Paddington has been closed owing simply to slippery floor!!!

Very little snow....

GWR getting an absolute slating on social media against this 'pathetic railway'.

Surely if Paddington is closed that’s a Network Rail decision? ChrisB saying on another thread due to slippery surface. Anyone able to elaborate further on this? Must be extremely frustrating if you are trying to get in or out of London and the main snowfall hasn’t even begun yet.

Not been made clear yet why the Didcot-Oxford shuttles aren't running in anything I've seen. Nor what has happened to the stopping service from Didcot onwards. They have vanished from CIS information, not even there as cancelled.

PADDINGTON partially reopened

I was there late last night and it was incredibly slippery throughout the concourse.  The moderate amount of snow that fell in London yesterday was being whipped down the Praed Street entrance by the strong winds and into the concourse and all over a wide area covering to beyond where the tube stairs are.  It was then turning to slush and the combination of the tiles and slush was hellish in places - I've never seen it like that.  Some of the platforms were also being affected in a similar way as snow was blown into the tiled area from the exposed platform ends.

Posted by GWR on twitter

(https://i.gyazo.com/bac6562b2ed81352e7b4348f1d263427.png)

I'm repeating a post made on another thread, but I was there late last night and it was incredibly slippery throughout the concourse.  The moderate amount of snow that fell in London yesterday was being whipped down the Praed Street entrance by the strong winds and into the concourse and all over a wide area covering to beyond where the tube stairs are.  It was then turning to slush and the combination of the tiles and slush was hellish in places - I've never seen it like that.  Some of the platforms were also being affected in a similar way as snow was blown into the tiled area from the exposed platform ends.

According to GWR Twitter Paddington is about to reopen

A Network Rail picture of what it is like on the platforms at Paddington
(https://i.gyazo.com/daa7156d1855b859b87a95c2426c245b.jpg)

presumably the roof is leaking?

Looks like a XC service has 'sat down' and Goring and Streatley blocking the Down Relief.....

I take it all the appropriate platforms/areas were gritted/salted overnight?

Good question, I caught the train to Oxford this morning but had to return on the bus.
It seems to me that as soon as Paddington was shut the service just collapsed.
There have been no trains from Oxford to Didcot for 4 hours and none scheduled until after 12:00 and for 3 hours between Didcot and Oxford.
I fail too comprehend how the buses can run but the trains can't, isn't there any resilience?
It is very cold here (Didcot and Oxford) but there is hardly any snow we had more in December.

I saw plenty of staff late last night treating platforms at several stations.  Not much you could do with Paddington though given the extensive use of terrazzo tiles and the wind blowing snow into places it would never normally reach.

I find those tiles slippy at the best of times but i guess they're hard wearing?

Precious little resilience these days I'm afraid.  Resourcing managers have been cut to the point where Control can't cope as soon as things go more than slightly awry.  In the 'good old days' the Traincrew Supervisor at Oxford would have taken the lead at times of disruption ensuring his staff, and available trains in the area, were used in the most effective way - which was usually an all-stations shuttle service of some sort for the local trains.  Appleford often got its best ever service when there was disruption!  Now there is no supervisor at Oxford, so it gets forgotten amongst the 'more important' stuff.

That's a "no" then! ................sadly, as ever the threat from terrazzo is never far away these days!  ;)

Given that part of the area is known as the Lawn, perhaps they should rip up the terrazzo and replace it with grass?   ;)

...........how about a water feature? Maybe with Mark Hopwood as a cherub?

From Southern (with whom this thread started) on Twitter
 

Original discussion asked if Southern were right in suggesting disruption for up to 4 days when others said just a day or two.  Looks like Southern may have been the ones who were closer to what would happen and even they may have underestimated!

I have no problem with terazzo per se, but they must make available alternatives live bloody great mats for incelement weather. Or rip the terazzo up for something more suitable in all weathers!

They used terazzo simply because it is ultra-smooth & thus very weasy to keep clean. No one gave any thought to the regular inclement weather, did they @nationalrailPAD?

And ice on keyboard causing fingers to slip .. or are you back onto the idea of grass on the lawn  ;D

Love the idea of coughing and spluttering in the cold as one keeps the ground clean.

The surfaces in Paddington ARE lovely but even in the wet they get slippery to the extent that there are warnings. I can well imagine how they must have got this morning!

*like :-)

Rather appealed to my sense of humour that the BBC sent a reporter called Victoria to cover the situation at Paddington.

Yes.  Apparently Peter King's cross he wasn't sent.

Surely Mary Le Bone would have been closer to Paddington.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/46583.aspx

From the top of (I suspect all) pages on National Rail


Can help feeling "Train companies affected: All" would have been clearer - or are there one or two missing from the list?

Bit like the Devon/Cornwall school closures announced on the radio today.  They went through a detailed list of over 200 schools.  It would have been better to say "all schools closed except......"  ::)

I was there this morning at 0715 off 1A02 in platform 5. Although in walking boots, it was very difficult not to slide and I chose to stick to the tactile paving on the platforms.  The Lawn was something else - like it had been greased. I was surprised the station was not shut sooner.

The snow appeared to be coming down through the Brunel roof. It was very cold and the snow a fine dry powder.  I suspect it was blowing in through air vents in the roof. I chose to leave town via Marylebone and Oxford.

That was happening yesterday too - heading home I was unexpectedly rewarded with a generous mouthful of powdery snow at the top of the stairs to P2.

The Waterloo  - Exeter service has been running comparatively well today... although not as well as the TIGER feed for Salisbury suggests (100% on time) ... which wins it a place in Smoke and Mirrors.

Spotted this picture showing part of Paddington platforms 1-3 earlier today.
(https://i.gyazo.com/7320a0a32890b62904cc5900051603e2.png)

Away from the railway...

Unscientific wooden ruler measure on the drive, level, no drift, shows 4 inches of snow here in Chard.

Free entertainment watching cars attempt the roundabout by my flat. Compacted snow and a camber making it difficult for any 2 wheel drive vehicle. One Astra did a very graceful 180°. For technical merit I'd say a score of 5.6.

Seeing and hearing from friends and family across Somerset I'd say the Met Office red warning is justified.

Just back in from walking Finn. I usually take him out about 8pm, but not tonight. Don't fancy walking in snow in the dark. Finn seemed totally unfazed by the white stuff.

Nothing new in this, the same happened in the winter of 1982, it is the design of the roof and number of other factors that cause it

......only 36 years to come up with a solution then?

Yes it is a very fine powdery snow, which the wind is whipping around so that it gets everywhere.

When walking in Bath earlier today, even when there was just a splattering of snow, I was surprised at just how slippery the pavements were. Even a completely level well-used footway in the city centre was hard going, the hills far worse. So I'm not surprised at Paddington's earlier closure.

Ouch!

The Wrong Type of Snow?

When I went to the car on Wednesday morning there was a lot of snow on the door sills, and a very small amount had even got past the rubber seals into the interior! :o Same has happened on trains where the doors have small gaps around them, having seen photos of Caledonian Sleeper stock, Piccadilly Line 73ts and the inter-unit gangways of SE 375s.

2nd March ... awoken to a couple of inches of snow - not much more overnight.   I will personally be sitting tight today to not cause any problems "out there" for any rescue services ... I'm very much wobbly on my pins these days even on a warm dry day.  Somewhat relieved that meetings in Southampton today and Taunton tomorrow aren't happening and probably pulling out of travelling to Manchester on Saturday night for a return on Sunday evening.

Here's what it looked like in Melksham half an hour ago:

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/sno_20180301_02.jpg)

And a couple of pictures (this has turned into the picture thread, right  ;D ) from yesterday - one of mine and one from a contributor at t'other side of Bristol

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/sno_20180301_00.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/sno_20180301_01.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/sno_20180301_03.jpg)

Well, Finn and I were briefly housebound. After freezing rain on top of the snow, the steps from my flat were lethal. Between a neighbour and I, with salt and cat litter, we've managed to make them a little safer. We did consider hot water, but, with the temperature at -2, we were worried we'd replace frozen snow with a layer of ice.

I thought for a moment there that Pilning had had its station lighting delivered  ;D

I love the crowd control barriers stored on the platform ...

Good news for you and the dog........not so good for the cat. 😾💩

Someone on other social media asked me why I didn't shovel the frozen snow off the steps. I live in a first floor studio flat with no garden. I've also not had any murder victims to dispose of. Why would I have a shovel?  :P

Why indeed. Thanks for the clarification. Always best to call a spade a spade.

As you know, the decision was made to cancel as the weather forecast became more certain, and indeed I'm sitting at home writing this rather than travelling to Taunton at this very time.

Situation on Advance tickets purchase in advance (this from GWR) is


Happy to send full text and reference to that to anyone who had tickets to get to TWSW and needs to get a refund.  Note that the reference is "bought tickets in advance" so applies to any ticket.

At a different station, I did wonder why it was snowing inside.
https://twitter.com/LondonWaterloo/status/969227072446058497

I now have a shovel. No, I've not murdered anyone.

Wanted to dig the car out of our off street parking today. So walked to B&Q to get a snow shovel, having called ahead to check stock.

After about 6 shovels worth of snow my right knee said, "no more." Hobbled back up to my flat. The shovel making a handy crutch. Now lying in bed with a home made heat pack (hot water bottle in towel) on my knee.

I think I'll just let the snow melt before I take the car out. My planned trip to Lidl was hardly life or death.

It's my birthday soon. I'd like a new knee please.

Also. For Sale: Snow shovel. Nearly new, barely used.  ;D

You'll have to post it, no one in their right mind would collect knowing you have a shovel and haven't murdered anyone




yet

Well if your Lidls stocks were anything like my Sainsburys, no bread or fresh milk and longlife milk was depleting rapidly.

Local dairy farm hasn't had a milk tanker call since Wednesday and is ditching 8000 litres a day but is promised a collection before this afternoons milking but is giving the stuff away provided you bring your own containers with the advice to boil it before its used. The dairy manager tells me that they are covered by insurance for two consecutive days non-collection in five so their fingers are crossed that the milk tanker gets through today although two hills to the farm were closed this afternoon but the third hill is downhill to the farm and the main A roads are open.

A friend works for Tesco says they haven’t had any deliveries since Wednesday. Apparently their south west distribution centre is in South Wales under 7-8ft of snow and can’t get lorries out.
Our biggest issue was being busier than any single day at Christmas, and not having room for staff to be on the shop floor replenishing amongst the customers. We’ve had a steady flow of deliveries today,

Talking to my Tesco friend he says A lot of their customers aren’t considering the distribution issues when complaining about poor availability.

Rapid thawing in my locality today, though we were spared the worst compared with further west.  With temperatures approaching double figures and some rain forecast for tomorrow, hopefully the rail and road network will be back to normal for Monday morning.

Apart from the North Downs, of course, where GWR are expecting blizzards all week.

I went to our local TESCO today and there wasn't any milk or bread and the shelves in general were begining to thin out a bit.  It was worse than xmas in there :P  Hardly room to move and all cash desks in use (all 25 of them).

After watching the original blizzard of 1963 the other night I don't think we could cope today. That went on for months and was far worse. Today we have nothing local and products are shipped up country and shipped back packaged. Shops are out of basics like milk and farmers just down the road are dumping it. We would not survive today there would be huge number of casualties unless large numbers of helicopters or drones were brought into transport the basics. The whole system needs re thinking.

The next stage of the story from The BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43266514)


Story goes on company by company ...


and


Some pictures from the BBC's video:

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/swall20180303_1.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/swall20180303_2.jpg)

Personal view - it's pretty draft to rely on a railway in a hostile location such as this as your only link to a significant peninsular.   I understand that Network Rail are looking into it.

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/swall20180303_0.jpg)

I hope not. I was planning to use that line to get to Gatwick on Monday. I might need to replan my journey, hopefully still avoiding the morning peak.

I remember the winter of 1947, that was a winter to remember.

Twas after the 1963 winter and the criticism of Bristol City Councils response to the blizzard that the Bristol Council found some second hand snow clearance plant for sale by the local authority of Zurich in Switzerland and they bought it. It wasn't needed to be used until the blizzard of 1981 and it proved useless which provoked yet more criticism of the council to which the councils reponse was that the snow wasn't deep enough for the equipment to be effective. Nearly all of it was scrapped shortly afterwards.

In 1947 they didn't have the gritters they have today, they had tippper trucks with two men stood in the truck body with shovels spreading the grit from the truck body by hand and when an incline was reached these heros could spread the grit more liberally to give vehicles a fighting chance of getting up the hills. My Uncle Bob was one of those hand gritter heros.

Brilliant! That made I laff.  :D

0823 2O71 Bristol to Dorchester West, altered to terminate at Castle Cary. RTT then shows a 5O71 running thence  to Dorchester. Route proving before reopening perhaps?

Having seen the empty shelves in several Swindon supermarkets yesterday, I was fearing the worst ahead of my Tesco delivery this morning - but at 9.15 sharp he turned up with my complete order of 67 items less three Mars Bars. Very impressed.  Oh and it was £1.09 cheaper than it would have been at Aldi, Sainsbury's or Morrisons.  Every little helps.

I was at Sainsburys this morning, around here the shelves have been kept pretty well stocked throughout but today it seemed to be the first "busy" day since the "Great 48 hours of wintry weather 2018" and to watch them grabbing everything on sight you would have thought that people had been kept in a cage and fed on bread & water for the last month.

Sounds like Christmas Eve - the way people go through the shops on that day like locusts you'd think the supermarkets were going to be shut for weeks!!

Makes a change from snow...


Exeter Chiefs' match postponed yesterday has been re-arranged for today (so I guess you could still blame the snow!)

No Mars Bars? How will you cope?!  You should have stockpiled before the weather set in. :P

Oh, I rather think bobm would actually benefit from having three fewer Mars Bars.  ;) :D ;D

It was only a matter of time .... ;D

Buyer collect?  Not with those steps you posted the other day.  Need a Stannah stairlift.  ;D

Found a loaf of bread in my chest freezer. Available to the highest bidder!

Can bake my own bread.  Making milk was more of a problem!

There’s some cows in a field 1/2 mile away, how hard can it be?

I’d probably choose a bull by mistake.  ;D

One teat or four?

Under or rudder I think the phrase is.