Snow, snow, snow!

Have I been suddenly spirited away to the frozen wastes of the arctic circle while I slept? If so, why wasn't I given advanced warning! I demand compensation for the inconvenience of waking up yesterday morning to find a blanket of white just begging me to marr its perfection by going out and tramping all over it. I had a job interview in Hereford yesterday. Yes, yes, yes, I know I didn't tell you about it, I know! I do have a good excuse though (yes, occasionally they can be reasonably believable). Hereford sent me a letter on Friday telling me I had an interview on Monday. Don't you just love the heaps of time they give you to prepare? Luckily enough, i'd planned to go up there anyway this week as i'd told you, so it wasn't too much hassle to arrange to arrive there 2 days earlier than i'd planned to... Or was it? For mr snow had other ideas. The snow started falling on Sunday evening, right as I was leaving the house to travel. "No problem," thought foolish I, "For the trains will still be running. The snow's only light." Thankfully, JP's mum had offered to give me, the dog, and a huge monster of a rucksack which had interview clothes and stuff for the rest of the week in it, a lift to the train station. We arrived in plenty of time for the train, and waited for it to arrive. And waited, and waited. Then we waited some more. The waiting was so exciting that finally we just couldn't contain ourselves any more and got out of the frigidly cold car, into the biting teeth of the even colder wind to look at the board. The train was cancelled. "Problem," was my initial thought, because this was the last train of the day, but the only direct which I could have travelled on hence my not going earlier. So what do I do? Well, I went back to the car and put my self-righteous, unnecessarily wronged head on before I phoned the train company who informed me that all was not lost, for another service would come to replace the cancelled one in an hour. Let's hear the fanfares to herald the arrival of the heroic rescue party!

So we waited, and waited, and waited. Then, once more, it overcame us. This time when we looked at the board, the train had been delayed for a further 45 minutes. Given that it was now 10 at night, that the train took 2 and a half hours once I was on it to get to Hereford, and that Tony, who would have to drive a round trip of about 30 miles to come pick me up had work at 8 in the morning, I thought it wise to cut my losses and go home. The snow was falling heavier now, but still, in my naivity, I thought, or more accurately hoped furiously, that it would have cleared by the morning. Yes i'd be late for my interview, but I was sure they would accommodate that if I called to explain what had happened. It was with ssinking heart therefore that my slippered feet found rather a lot of snow as they wearily trod the gauntlet of the garden path at 6 in the morning to encourage a sleepy Molly to go pee, and show her that no, really it doesn't kill you to go outside 2 hours earlier than normal. Just on a tangent here, a new reader to the blog pointed out that I very rarely say anything positive about my old mutt, and seemed rather concerned about her. I feel obliged to point out that my comments regarding Molly are made mainly for the sake of engendering a slight smile and a tolerant, polite laugh in my other readers. No, I do not hate my dog. Of course I don't. I love her to bits, but soppy musings aren't nearly as amusing as the usual trend that my writings take when discussing the dog who was, at this point, still sleepy. That soon disappeared though when she realised that peeing early was rewarded very well by a big bowl of food; also early. Dog molified, I thought I would check the news, just before I got dressed. Only to assure myself that trains weren't too badly delayed, you understand. Newscaster: We would like to report that all trains in the southeast and south of England are severely disrupted today, with many services cancelled. When I called the hotline, I discovered to my horror (oh that sounds dramatic, doesn't it?) that every single train to Hereford was cancelled. I couldn't get there. I'd missed the interview. Well, I ended up calling them to arrange a telephone interview which thankfully, they accommodated me by doing. Surprisingly, only one other person had cancelled due to bad weather. I was expecting nobody at all to turn up, given that Hereford had a lot of snow as well. As usual, the interview went very well indeed, but only time will tell if I get the job or not. I'm also still waiting on feedback from Orpington, who are stalwartly refusing to answer their telephones whenever I call them up, which I have been doing with frightening regularity and persistency since 9 yesterday morning. It's really cheeky of them not to tell me, given that we're now 4 days past the deadline they gave. So i'll keep hounding them I suppose, until they give me an answer either way. In the meantime, I have a meeting on Thursday with the folks who will hopefully be able to secure my funding for Hereford. On Friday I get to go to the gym hopefully, and then to a meeting with the MSG group which i'm involved in. I'm not sure if I mentioned them before, but if not, they're a special interest group who are carrying out research on neurological conditions such as MS and Parkinsons, and how exercise impacts on them. It's good from a physio point of view, and a job one, to be involved in something like this. It also holds personal interest because they're trying to develop a truely inclusive gym environment. That's important for people like me, as well as neuros and those with heart and BP problems. I don't usually go to gyms unless i'm with something, because the loud music that's normally played in those environments completely warps my spatial awareness and makes it almost impossible for me to navigate the environment on my own. I can use the Clear Unit (the MSG gym) because those types of restrictions don't apply. So, as well as being involved in the managerial side of the project, i'm also going to start using from a user's point of view, so that my feedback and approach to furthering the Clear Unit's existence is approached from an end user's perspective. How many times did I say user in that sentence? Forgive? Anyway, i'm rambling, but i've finished my nonsensical wafflings. I'll go to Hereford next week now probably, instead of this week. If there's anything of worth to tell you before then, i'll update. Until then, be good, stay safe, and if the cops find you, disguise yourself as a fat snowman, complete with carrot nose. I guarantee they won't be able to pick you out of a line up.