Bedlam

 Somehow dahhnsaff (down South) we never cope very well with snow. Yesterday in the space of 40 minutes it turned from rain to a blanket of snow. I finished work very excited and looking forward to a snowball fight with son.

I work from home so my commute from work consisted of 2 staircases. Husband was in Burgess Hill (about 10 miles from home) and left work at 16:00, son was in Lewes (about 6 miles from home). and left school at 16:00.

It got to 18:00 and I messaged them to find out where they were, son said he was still in Lewes, husband was silent, it got to 18:30 and I messaged again. Son was still in Lewes, husband said that he was in back to back traffic. It got to 19:00 I repeated the message. Son had now got as far as the Amex stadium (4 miles from house), but the minibus was stationery. Husband was silent.

In the end husband pulled over to call and explained that he had tried about 20 routes, but was struggling to get home. Then son rang, the main road was shut and kids were planning to get off the minibus and walk and could he. I said absolutely not - it was snowing and freezing and he just had a thin summer coat and school uniform on. Son was less than impressed. Then he rang to say that some kids parents were picking them up. I decided that I'd do the same.

So then started my adventure. I got wrapped up warm and filled a rucksack with a winter coat, gloves, hat and snood for son and I headed off. I wasn't looking forward to the journey it was going to be 4 miles up a steep hill. In fact I wasn't even sure if I could do it! But filled with the fire that you can only find as a mother when you're kid is in trouble off I went (mother lioness).

There's an alley at the end of my road I'd never normally take in the dark - but I was so full of lioness I decided if somebody tried to attack me I could probably take them out. Once I got to the main road it looked reasonably ok. I walked for another 5 mins and wondered if it was worth going back for car. Then thought about the snow on my road and historic issues I've had getting up the hill to get to the main road and decided to plough on.

Five mins further on and I realised I'd made the right decision, suddenly there were cars abandoned everywhere. There were some cars trying to make it up the hill, but they were sliding back down again. I put my head down and carried on.

There's something about the Brits in a crisis. Normally dahhnsaff nobody talks to each other. If a stranger interacts with you you worry that they are going to attack you. If there's any sort of crisis suddenly everybody bands together. It was quite the party as I walked up the road. People coming back down having left their car and people having to walk for other reasons. Lots of us were wearing rucksacks because we were off to rescue somebody that was inadequately dressed for the weather. 

Once I got out of the town and onto the Downs I phoned son and said that he should get out of the minibus and start walking down the path to join me. As I'd been walking uphill on icy pavements for 4 miles as fast as I could - I was extremely out of breath. Son was really concerned about me - I told him I was hamming it up!

About 10 minutes later I got a call and son said that he could see my torch in the distance. I wibbled it around so he could confirm it was me and he put the torch on his phone to do likewise. 

Once we met up we turned around and headed back down the hill home. My leg muscles started crying out 'you can't use the uphill muscles and the downhill muscles'. Actually once I was reunited with son walking across the South Downs at night in the snow was a really special experience.

Son had been on social media and had discovered the problem. When the snow turned to ice some abandoned cars had started to slide down the hill - straight into cards that were being driven. The resulting chaos is is unsurprising.

Today's photo is taken just as we walked out of the Downs and back into the urban road. All the cars you can see are abandoned. I thought the sign was absolutely hilarious. It's hard to read because of my rubbish phone camera, but it says something like 'Your walking for short journeys benefits and gets fit points'. I felt like adding a message after it saying 'How about very long walks uphill in the snow'.

Son and I continued down hill and eventually - having left school at 16:00 son got home at 21:25. Husband had made it home at around 20:45. I'd like to point out he did ring and offer to pick us up, but I knew what the roads were like going up the hill so refused.

When we were about 200m from home, my legs suddenly decided that they were not needed any more and literally stopped working. It was sheer willpower that made it the rest of the way home.

And that is the story of my 8 mile lioness walk through the snow on icy roads (I'm disgustingly proud of myself).

But who is the hero of the night? The minibus driver stayed with the kids in that minibus throughout. When son left there were still 4 kids on the bus - parents had walked to pick up the rest. During my calls with son I could hear utter bedlam in the background with kids shrieking, being demanding and making calls. When the kids started to rebel and insist on walking alone she refused to let them out. She contacted parents whenever it was necessary. She stayed there with them throughout. I found out this morning that she actually didn't get home until about 22:45. I raise my hat.