Tuesday, August 07, 2012

snow

hi there

as i drove in to verk today, with the vibes on at the correct volume so as to block out any untoward sounds my car may be making, i noticed something peculiar and familiar about the clouds. they were, it has to be said, a rather specific shade of dark. "aye, aye", i said to myself, "that looks like snow clouds".

the weather forecasts suggested that some snow may fall in some parts of South Africa today, but we were not really expecting much if any here. as things turned out, it did snow a little bit. it stopped for a while, and then it snowed quite a lot.




blimey! speaking of snow in Johannesburg is quite a strange thing. one would usually assume that the word was being used for its more "phrase for cocaine" sense, to be honest. rare indeed is it that one gets to speak of the real, non-high thing!

if i recall correctly, the last time there was snow of this nature or consequence here was around 1981 or 1982. i am pretty sure there was in Australia too around then, for i can remember watching a bit of the news and seeing an Aussie Postie (for they have such things) delivering mail through the snow.

needless to say, there's a fair few of my colleagues here that have never ever seen the stuff, and thus they rushed off to stand in it. i am all too familiar with the stuff, and thus just stayed inside and took pictures!




even with the limitations of my blueberry phone i think you can see the "light" difference between the first and second picture. this would be due to, thankfully as far as i am concerned, the Sun ebbing through these dark clouds.

with none of the other Arctic conditions near us that sees snow hang around like it does in England, the snow is melting away, rather quickly.




how quickly? well, this next picture was taken no more than 90 minutes after the first one.




phew! be gone! i suppose a positive of this snow falling was that it makes a mockery of Bono (or perhaps Bob Geldof. Midge Ure, even) for saying that there won't be snow in Africa. well, OK, they did mention it about Christmas, but still.

does this snow make me nostalgic and homesick? not really, not the snow itself. i kind of miss a coal fire, double glazed windows and central heating on a day like today, but that's about it!

the internet shall no doubt be flooded with a blizzard of pics of this snow, so thank you for taking the time to look at mine!




be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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