Talking about the weather

Son No Two took to his bed with flu symptoms and a terrible cough so he missed it all but as his Sixth Form College has been closed part of the week anyway due to adverse weather conditions and he reckons all of his mates and his IT tutor were off also, he hopes he hasn't missed much. (Today he's taken to his bed again because he was playing on the X Box all night at his friend's house and he's worn out but that's another story).

Son No One has had a proper hard week. It was his first week of night shift in his new job, working for a company who are based up at Consett, high on the edge of the Pennines in North West Durham, perched on the steep eastern bank of the River Derwent.

Incredibly he has managed to make it there every night apart from one when the snow was just too bad to attempt the roads. He's travelled through a freak thunder and lightning storm and freezing fog and seen signposts almost buried in the stacked up snow.

Arriving home in the early hours he's noticed sights he's never seen before, (probably never having been up that early) like the lonely three foot icicle hanging off our washing line, foxes in the back garden, a bird table resembling a wedding cake and the army of icicle spears lacing our guttering.

Last Saturday morning we went to Roker for a walk along the beach where patches of white snow lay on the yellow sand. The wind was so vicious we only walked as far as the Cat and Dog Steps and then retreated to the Bungalow Café which is a lovely homely café in a tiny bungalow on the upper promenade. The signpost next to the café is rather famous marked: "To Beach" (pointing towards the beach), "To Village" (pointing into Roker), "To Bungalow" (pointing to the cafe), and "To Germany" (pointing out to sea).

We wrapped our frozen fingertips around enormous bacon buns with tomato sauce and drank tea from a huge teapot as grey as the landscape directly front of us through the hail lashed glass window. We gazed at the waves throwing themselves onto the golden sands and whipping up and over the top of Roker Pier whilst the searing wind tried to blow the cafe door off its hinges.

Then on Monday I was back to work. Whilst my other half struggled to drive his van down the A19 to South Shields, I travelled to Spennymoor where lorries attempted to drive down the almost impassable side road past the building where I work and our cars had to be dug and pushed out of the car park some nights as the snow and ice was so treacherous...

Like everyone else in the country, I fervently hope that next week brings some respite...