Let it snow

I’ve officially done nothing today other than sit on the sofa, filling in application forms and watching television whilst the snow drifts down outside. It has, I’m pretty convinced, snowed without stopping for the entire day - only tiny little flakes, so I don’t think anyone in Highgate will need to worry about being snowed in – but pretty impressive nonetheless. Since darkness fell, I’ve been hypnotised by the way the snow is dancing underneath the street light outside our house, creating a magical swirling blizzard of tiny orange diamonds. There’s been snow on the ground for almost a week now, and they say it’s going stay around for at least a couple of days. This is the longest period of snow that I can remember since my childhood.

I’m watching Dancing on Ice and am really beginning to get irritated by the lazy choreography.  Why is there so much nodding? Keenly nodding one’s head in time to the music means nothing and looks like amateur street dance. Almost every time there’s some kind of lift, one of the dancers starts nodding their head like the dog in Churchill commercials.

I’ve just been out in the snow for the first time today. It’s deeper than I thought. There’s 4 or 5 inches sitting on the top of the wall outside, and with every step, my feet made a low squeaking crunch, which is a rare sound on a London street!

350 years ago and Pepys was still trying to find his lonely wife a paid companion. He had wanted to bring his sister Pall back into the house to “save throwing away money on strangers,” but Elizabeth wasn’t so keen on the idea. Instead, she favoured the daughter of one Mr Ashwell, so various meetings were set up. Poor Elizabeth. Imagine having to pay for a friend?