Now don't get me wrong, I appreciate we are not really set up for snow to interrupt our usual drizzle, and it was quite heavy ( about 5-6 inches) but I haven't seen a city and its people attempt to grind to a halt seemingly at the say so of the media who went into immediate panic mode as soon as they all got into their studios.
You really would have thought a giant meteorite was about to hit the earth!
I left to go to work at 0520 and stepped out of my door to see the full extent of the snow. The first thing I thought was "Gosh, it's been snowing".
I picked up two workmates and drove into the centre of Manchester. We were all in agreement that it had been snowing, and at times, things were a bit hairy on the roads, due to the thickness of the snow.
We had a bit of a dilemma once we arrived in town, on trying to decide which car park to park in. Once this was decided, we parked up and walked to the office, slipping a little on the way, we arrived with damp shoes and wet socks and settled down for a days work.
That really was the level of our concern at the weather.
Within an hour or so the media had woken up and started spreading panic amongst the general population (and in particular the rest of my staff due in at the office).
The phone calls started.
"I'm not sure I can make it in my cars stuck!"
"The radio says all public transport has been suspended!"
"The TV says that the emergency services are no longer functioning!"
"The Internet says the Airport is closed - THE AIRPORT IS CLOSED!!!"
Now, how Manchester Airport being closed affects anything I'm not too sure; as far as I know, none of the guys on the service desk fly in to work.
The airport seems a strange barometer for the weather - "It was that bad, they closed the airport"
Now forgive me if I'm wrong, but Ringway has two mile long stretches of concrete, which when it snows, will quickly get covered. It then isn't really wise to send airplanes hurtling up and down those stretches of concrete to either land or take off. You can't really ask the Ryanair flight to Didcot to tootle along at under 20mph in case its a bit slippy.
No you close the airport (or more importantly the runways) clear them, and then get things moving again. Oddly this doesn't really make the news.
As it turned out we managed to cajole/ bully pretty much all the staff into the office, and they all arrived quite safely in one piece. I'm sure they'll all have better excuses worked out for tomorrow.
A special mention should go here to Dave "Cold - that's not cold, let me tell you about cold" Hardisty, who arrived from somewhere past Bolton half an hour early for his shift wearing a short sleeve shirt!
I was then most annoyed to see the City watch was postponed for tomorrow night! How can they postpone a match the day before - and a derby at that! Surely it should have waited until the actual day of the game - it isn't as though the fans have got to travel far - oh actually, scratch that I was forgetting the united fans coming up from the home counties - and the disruption to the Irish ferry crossings.
I despair!
Anyway, where did I put that orange football!
