ice

Well it's not quite like this where I live today but it may as well be. My car isn't far off the one above; it has a thick layer of ice on it that isn't responding to de-icer or my agressive hacking action with a small piece of plastic, laughingly described as an ice-scraper on the handle. Scraping is all very well but if it doesn't remove anything then I may as well rub flowers on my windscreen. The boy fell over on Monday (after I told him not to go the 'quick' way) and we had to go to hospital for the second time in a week. I sent him out today and watched nervously as he stepped tentativley into the road. He turned to face me and, with the universal submissive 'I don't know what to do' gesture, proceeded to slide gently sideways out of my field of vision. Even this wasn't enough to persuade him out of his de-riguer trainers and into some sensible footware. I then watched as a woman tried to turn her car round next to my house. We looked at each other as, in slow motion and not without a degree of balletic grace, her car slid into mine and bumped it ever so delicately. She gave me the same gesture. I think there'll be a lot of that in the UK today. I have given up the idea of driving into work and am about to brace myself for at least 3 falls while I negotiate my way to the station. I had a look on the work's facebook page and there are a lot of unhappy people. Buses aren't running and the only thing hot is the underside of colleagues' and students' collars who are struggling in for pay or EMA with little sypathy from an instituion that assumes everyone lives just around the corner. Maybe I'll take the boat in....