Standstill

Britain got snowed on. You'd think this was completely unheard of by the news coverage it had yesterday, and continues to get today. Okay, I understand that 'The South' doesn't see snow very often, but up here in northern England we do get it most years, and this isn't the first dump of the white stuff we've had this winter. I find it a bit pathetic that the country (or at least London, which by the news coverage you'd think was the only part of the country that mattered when it comes to these things) comes to a standstill when we get hit by 'up to a foot of snow'. Canada, Russia, Norway, Switzerland, and countless other countries get more snow than that and yet still manage to keep going, so how come 4cm of snow causes such havoc in Britain? It baffles me. All the snow's gone in Newcastle now, although I suspect there's still some up in Northumberland and over the North Pennines.

I haven't had much to do with today, and not because of anything to do with the weather, but rather because I'm not feeling too grand. I didn't sleep at all well last night, because my lungs were being grumpy, and they've still been overly stroppy today. My peak flow (see link under 'Asthma and Allergies' in the left hand column) is 130 post nebuliser, and that's not good. This may be the slippery slope down to a hospital admission, although I'm hoping not. Mind you, I can't complain as I've done pretty well not to have been in hospital since November, which is something of a record for me. We'll see what happens, but at the moment I am at a standstill as well as the country. I've been staying inside as much as possible over the last few days as the cold air doesn't help the whole breathing thing, but the flat's not that warm either. I've got the heating on, and at the moment the gas fire's on too, but the cost of it bothers me so I don't like to have either on too much. There are times though, when putting on several layers of clothes and wrapping yourself up in a blanket just isn't enough, and when the ability to move about is already hampered by ineffective breathing, the additional effort of carting around half the clothes you own and some of the bed doesn't help. It's hard work though, this breathing lark, and I wish I could do more than sofa surf, but right now I haven't got the energy, and in fact I didn't actually manage to get out of bed until 5.30pm. I'll be going back to bed fairly soon. I've ground to a halt once again, but need to rest if I'm to have a chance at staying out of hospital.