Friday, January 04, 2008
It’s snowing…
Fantastic. But can someone tell me why I can get the Guardian, Daily Telegraph and the FT, but none of the local papers have made it as far as East Belfast? Photo from Gary at the NI Flickr Group!!
Mick Fealty @ 10:55 AM
when the Roads service actually awake and come back down to Planet reality maybe, just maybe, they`ll blame all their obvious failings(again) on the wrong type of snow, the darned weather not obeying the laws of nature and melting under the vast amounts of salt and grit applied, little three eyed men from Mars and even the unthinkable…
we messed up!
Posted by on Jan 04, 2008 @ 04:06 PMTwinbrook, I don’t think it’s feasible for the Roads Service to grit or plough every road.
Posted by on Jan 04, 2008 @ 04:17 PMwillowfield..
was hoping for foresight and some organisational ability on the part of the Roads service, maybe thats too much…
sure its Winter and severe weather was forecast for Scotland and the North of England but the Irish seas thousaaaaaands of miles wide!Posted by on Jan 04, 2008 @ 04:31 PMYeah, but severe winter weather wasn’t forecast. A sprinkling of snow was forecast followed by rain. Instead we got several inches of snow and rain only started later on. I know the Roads Service can be slow, but you can’t expect them to be clairvoyant, Twinbrook.
Posted by on Jan 04, 2008 @ 07:56 PMWillowfield,
I take your point that Roads Service can’t grit every road etc and thats a fair and understandable point.
But watching UTV News at 6pm I was shouting at the TV as the Deputy Chief Whoever Ye Call Em of Roads Service basically blamed the Met Office.
Come on Roads Service, you wern’t caught on the hop that much, we knew snow was coming since Tuesday so the question must be asked again…
When civil servants simply get it wrong and make a mistake why can’t they just admit to it?
Posted by on Jan 04, 2008 @ 09:10 PMI’m fed up with people from (or who have gone to) North America going on about how much snow they have and how much better they put up with it than we do etc etc. They have more compensations than we have. FFS, can we not have a good moan when we feel like it? Makes up feel better. Would you deny us that? Anyway, why did you go to North America in the first place?
Also, yes, it’s capital N for the North in North America, and capital E for the E in East Belfast. If you’re going to insist on “east Belfast” (see earlier comments) then you’ll also have to speak of north Antrim (Paisley’s constituency,and he mightn’t like that) or Bangor west (which the people there mightn’t like) Also, you’d better tell N Ireland Railways who think their station there is called Bangor West with a capital w.
Enough.
Posted by on Jan 04, 2008 @ 10:22 PMAnd I was looking forward to a trip to Belfast this evening to see Doug Howlett make his debut for Munster v. Ulster… oh well.
Posted by on Jan 04, 2008 @ 11:15 PMEast Belfast takes an “E”.
Surely it would need more than onePosted by on Jan 05, 2008 @ 11:48 AMCapital ‘E’ when referring to the constituency, lower case when referring to the eastern part of Belfast.
Simple.
Posted by on Jan 05, 2008 @ 12:07 PMNevin - well spotted on the missing Y (fronts)…
Mick - thanks for using my picture!
Posted by on Jan 05, 2008 @ 12:20 PMThe radio was full of people whining about the state of the roads being “a disgrace”. It’s all a bit over the top. The snow wasn’t anticipated; the DoE’s gritters can’t really be blamed.
The only way to prevent yesterday’s problems would have been to have a huge crew of snowploughs and gritters on standby all throughout the winter months to spring into action whenever there is any snow. Given that we only have snowfalls this serious once every 3-4 years, this would be a huge waste of taxpayer’s money. Take a day off work for cryin’ out loud and enjoy it.
Posted by on Jan 05, 2008 @ 12:21 PMI loved it - I thought it was beautiful. There were a few troubles but no mass deaths and much of it was cleared up by rain, so hardly any time to get sick of it (like our brethren in snowier climes). If I had one complaint it would only be that it would have been wonderful to have the snow for Christmas. Metro and Ulsterbus services are already non-existent at that time and it would have meant some travel chaos but many people would have been delighted to have been holed up at home with a giant tub of Quality Street to console themselves.
Posted by on Jan 05, 2008 @ 01:51 PMI’m fed up with people from (or who have gone to) North America going on about how much snow they have and how much better they put up with it than we do etc etc.
Yes Eddie. I am one of those self-exiles and I would never dream of saying that; the shitty N.I. summer weather for 5 years in a row was one of the reasons I left. I knew to expect snow in the winter. A place like N.I. cannot, with its relatively mild weather, spend a fortune to be ready for a rare winter storm.
Take a day off work for cryin’ out loud and enjoy it.
Exactly Comrade. Even we have to shut everything down a few days each winter. Schoolkids just love those “snow days”.Posted by on Jan 05, 2008 @ 02:45 PMGonzo says:
Capital ‘E’ when referring to the constituency, lower case when referring to the eastern part of Belfast.I say:
So what about West Belfast then? Often referred to as such in local, national and international press. I have no objection to that. Any community or area that is an identifiable community or area of its own takes a capital letter. East Belfast, West Belfast,
North London (and that’s not a constituency)
Bangor West, the Lower Ards, the Far East...and so on, Gonzo. Eh?Posted by on Jan 05, 2008 @ 06:04 PMNot to mention East Anglia, the Scottish Highlands, the South Seas, or even South Armagh.
Posted by on Jan 05, 2008 @ 06:16 PMThe technicalities of gritting would make a good PhD (if they haven’t already)
The latest addition was indeed an ovious one - in heavy snow conditions, the gritting lorries can’t go that fast (nor can they at any time) and therefore the effects of any gritting/salting are negated before any distance of road has been treated.
For once, though, this year there didn’t seem to be the demands for treating every square inch of road - which time and again we are reminded costs a disproportionate amount of money in relation to the additional number of folk who would be helped.
As CS wisely said above, when it happens, take the day off and enjoy it. I say that as someone who trudged into work, feet completely frozen, only to find a festive email from my director advising that he was “working from home” that day...grrrr....
Posted by on Jan 05, 2008 @ 06:53 PMJoeCanuck - amen to that brother. It’s the truly dismal Summers where the temperatures struggle to breach the 18 degree barrier that are the real problem with NI weather. Last Summer the temps here reached 35 degrees.
Eddie I don’t live in North America, I live in the Baltic states, where the weather at the moment is, to use an Ulsterism, ‘Baltic’. So the supposed compensations that you speak of really don’t exist. Despite that, people just get on with life and don’t whine about the bad weather - that seems to be a peculiarly British/Irish thing. Here it’s quite the opposite - they moan now that cos of global warming, there isn’t enough snow. Funny old world eh? Temperatures for all of December were a comfortable 2 or 3 degrees and are forecast to return that way next week. I guess Riga’s got more in common with Belfast than ethnic tensions and a Latvian labour force after all?
Posted by on Jan 05, 2008 @ 06:54 PM*It’s the truly dismal Summers where the temperatures struggle to breach the 18 degree barrier that are the real problem with NI weather.*
I often have my parents tell me on the phone, “It’s a really lovely warm day here today, it was 18 degrees”, I hate to tell them that 18 degrees is the coldest temperature setting I can get on my air conditioning.
Posted by on Jan 06, 2008 @ 01:06 AMCan I ask a question?
Does anyone own a 4x4 (you may have to post under a different name to avoid social opprobrium)? If so are they better in the snow? Looking at the television I got the impression that they were little benefit because you get stuck in along line of stationary cars.
Posted by on Jan 06, 2008 @ 11:44 AM
