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We were meant to be driving home today, but the country was under threat of coming to a stand still due to snow and a new kind of rain that is liquid, in spite of being colder than zero degrees and which turns to ice as it hits the ground. The laws of physics were being overturned and I was expected to get my family safely from Somerset to Hertfordshire.
As it happened there was no impossible freezing rain (though plenty of the regular kind that actually exists) and very little sign of snow or ice and the temperature was a balmy 12 degrees and it was one of the easiest journeys home we've ever had. Perhaps other road users had stayed at home in fear of being turned into an ice statue as the UK was now apparently Narnia. Or maybe it was just because it was Sunday morning. The rain made things a little bit slower, but we got home in good time and without having to dig our way out of a snow drift.
The kids were disappointed to the point of tears. Phoebe thought that she had missed snow at home. She loves snow. In spite of the cat shit snowman experience. Hear more about this on my upcoming tour!
We did make the point that they'd be much better off if it snows on Tuesday as then they'll get time off school, rather than on a day we were travelling. But kids love snow above all else. Though not in whatever country there is a bit too much snow for it to be exciting.
As long term readers will know I am a big fan of number-plate games. I finally completed the basically impossible (even when the right kind of number plate existed) CNPS. DO NOT attempt to play this game now. It is super impossible now, even if you dedicate your life to it (as I did in 2004). For more information on this download The Twelve Tasks of Hercules Terrace.
Another game slightly spoiled by the new style number plates is the one where you attempt to make a word out of the three consecutive letters. You can add any other letters, but the three number plate letters must appear in the word in the order they are on the number plate. So if you have PTG, you could have "Putting" or "Spitting" or "Pentangle". I can't remember if you got more points for longer words or shorter words, but we spent hours happily playing this in the 1970s, whilst attempting to make a polo last as long as possible. We did not have ipads. Not even Gameboys. Not even Walkmans. Not even a radio (that was just our car though, but I don't think they came as standard - you have to have one installed).
Sometimes it was easy to get a word, sometimes it was more challenging.
Anyway modern day number plates do have three consecutive letters so you can still play the game, but it's like whoever decided they were going to destroy CNPS also wanted to wreck this word game, because the majority of numberplates tend to go for some impossible combination like XXK or JVZ. Come on numberplate makers, give us a chance to have some fun. I mainly feel sorry for the author of the car journey game book that I had as a child. It's like they want them to sell zero copies. And they must be about 120 by now so they really need the money (also they are the oldest person in the world, so they need money for protection). You could still play Pub Cricket if all the pubs weren't closing down.
Phoebe and me managed to play the game for a little while, but it was frustratingly impossible. And there weren't as many cars as usual and the ones that weren't nearby were obscured by rain and spray. So she went back to her ipad and the chance to relive the excruciating journeys of the 1970s was lost.
I was a super number plate nerd in the 70s. I could tell you which county a car came from. But today's new fangled number plates are impossible to understand. If Reform promise to return us to the 1970s in number plates then they will get my vote.
How come I didn’t lose my virginity until I was nearly 20?
