Spring?

       Here we are on  the second day of Spring, and it certainly isn't anything like it here in Barcelona, never mind good old  Blighty, where it seems there are the worst conditions since World War 2!  Weather-wise, we are hopeless in the UK, and it only takes a puny couple of inches of snow to put all  our services and means of transport in jeopardy. I'm listening to Radio 4 as I type this, and really it seems that we have become a nation of total softies, who can't manage without our central heating. This brings back memories from my youth (OK so that was a hundred years ago) when we lived in a semi-detached house which had no central heating, like every other house in the road! We had a fire in our 'dining' room which had a back boiler, so we only had hot water when the fire was lit. The rest of the time we boiled a kettle on the gas and sat round the fire to keep warm and listen to the wireless. I can still light a decent fire and often do, but I wonder how many young people could do the same if it became really necessary.
       My Sister and I slept in a double bed with eiderdowns piled on top in winter, and every morning when we woke up there were frosty fern patterns inside the window..(We breathed on them so that we could see out into the garden.) We hopped out of bed pretty smartly to wash down in the unheated bathroom (with hot water from the kettle) and get dressed. I'm not saying that it was great, I'm simply saying that was the norm then, and  though we now have all our lovely home comforts, I'm not sure that they have improved our quality of life as much as we think. We were certainly tougher then, and didn't expect everything to be done for us, as seems to be the case today. Anyway, old moaner that I undoubtedly am, I would rather like to see some of the old British spirit surfacing when snow strikes.
      I was watching the Spurs vs Rochdale FA Cup replay on Wednesday evening through a live stream with Son in the comfort of his apartment, while Daughter was at Wembley in what looked like a blizzard. It was a very exciting match, despite or maybe because of the weather, and the Spurs won 6 -1 in the end. Son and I were looking out for Daughter on the telly, but didn't spot her in the crowd and I have to say that for most of the second half we couldn't even see the ball on the screen.
    Ah well, who could have expected that we'd have snow in Winter?