there are, look you see, several differences between us here in England and our friends in Australia. one which is most pertinent to this post, before you read on, is how each of our great cultures understands the word "sledging".
should you find yourself in Australia and suggested that you wished to engage in some sledging, you would be directed to the nearest cricket pitch. and, believe me, there are many of them. to an Australian, to be sure, to conduct some sledging is to discuss, in rather intimate and indeed personal terms, the sister, mother, daughter, aunt or similar female relative of an opponent in a game of cricket.
whereas we English will, but of course, reciprocate these expressions of interest in kind as and when invited to do so, usually sledging brings to mind something entirely different. for us, then, sledging is to do with snow, which in fairness is not something Australians get all that much of.
oh, yes. this is another "throwback" sort of thing to the death of February and the arrival of March; those hedonistic days in which we got a right battering in terms of snow off of something called "the beast from the east" and someone called "Storm Emma". it is, i think, the third or fourth instance of me posting on the subject.
why so late or so long after it all happened? well, i kind of discovered the "schedule" button a while back. i have taken a shine to it, really, and so tend to do blog posts a month or so in advance. well, 3 - 4 weeks. partially this is all done to just let me get posts done here for those interested as and when i get chance. mostly, though, it is because death listens. and should death hear that i am ready, well, it kind of partially amuses me to think that statements from me shall seep or otherwise eke out with me no longer here.
in terms of the latter, hopefully that is all not any time soon, of course; although some will wish it to be so now. that is, however, not what we are here for. no, instead, it is all a celebration of William's celebration of some widespread, decent and "proper" (as in not "fanny") snow befalling our lands.
as we were touched with this proper snow - the kind of which that is rather deep and does not go away in what you would consider a hurry - William expressed an interest in having a go at this "sledging" business. my initial reaction was, of course, to teach him how to explain to the fellow cricketer who enquired about weight that it was down to said players' wife presenting him with a cookie whenever a certain act had been performed, but that should wait a few years.
off i went, then, to a local business what was selling these sledges. despite the high level of demand the pricing was not unreasonable at £9.99, or if you will just 1p south of £10. this investment carried a risk, of course - it might have been that William tried to sledge once and did not like it, and that was some 95% - 97% of a pack of Marlboro wasted on some plastic. as the pictures thus far have probably revealed, however, he loved it.
how about a look at the landscape, or if you will scenery, of where we went off to sledge? and why not, since i had a relatively decent digital camera and not just my phone with me. but also remember that i am not the greatest of photographers, and anyway i have compressed the image here to make it all easier for it to load up for you.
that, or this, is indeed an area of quite magnificent, unequalled beauty near by where we live. it's also been the spot for years where the young and the old of our village have congregated as and when the snow has descended to engage in some sledging. well, quasi sledging. some of my fondest memories involve bombing down this hill and similar within the conduit of an ICI plaggy bag.
other things have changed, too. back in the 70s and 80s this land on which we sledged and continue to sledge was under the custodianship of an easily angered, rural, farmer type. at any hint of snow he used to ensure that the bottom of the hill was a reservoir, or if you will veritable treasure trove, of barbed wire, broken glass and similar. the thinking would be that we would not go sledging on what he viewed as his land if we were liable to get all FUBAR (google it) at the conclusion of the ride.
some video of me before the beauty? why, sure. any screams you can hear are of the children bombing down the hill on sledges, honest. mostly, however, i suspect you shall hear the strong gusts of winds what battered all of us out, or maybe some of my struggles to breathe with my penchant for not quitting or cutting down considerably cigarettes being somewhat responsible.
a concern i had in putting this post together was it being "William heavy". i do my best to try to make this all fair and equal when it comes to updates on the boys. well, i suppose James gets the brunt of coverage here during cricket season.
the problem of getting updates concerning James when it snows is that he has expressed exceptional displeasure with the stuff. he did go out and have a go at (non-cricket) sledging himself. after ten minutes he felt, or believed, that the fun aspect most certainly did not outweigh the cold, the wet and the frozen body, and so went home. now, mostly, when it snows he remains indoors.
but circumstances determined that James would indeed go out in the snow, hence the above image of him existing. no, not school - that got closed down for four days whilst we battled the weather. and no, i am sure they did not close down school for us when it snowed, we got sent regardless and got belted off our parents and teachers if we dared to be all fanny about it and suggest it was too cold.
this travel out into the snow was down to James being invited over to one of his mates to celebrate a birthday or similar. celebrations which turned into one of them impromptu "sleepover" parties. he had to walk home, for the Met office soothsayers, charlatans and wizards of the weather had declared a "red alert" for our area. what this means is that the insurance companies have an excuse not to pay for any car related incidents, as apparently one should not drive under a red alert.
well, back to the sledging, then. here's William, honest, off in the distance, after completing a relatively successful run on one of the more gentler slopes what one does some non-Australian sledging on.
for William this was all love at first sight, or first descent, or first experience. he declared sledging to be the best thing ever, after also declaring snow to be the best thing ever. unlike James, William needs no encouragement or particular reason to be out in snow. as point of fact, in certain instances we have had to lock up the house and physically restrain him from being out in it, he loves it so much.
some video of William bombing down on a, or rather the, sledge? sure, why not. to be honest this is not the greatest or best of runs he had - and he had many - but somehow i managed not to film his most excellent, Olympic quality ones. but let me shut up now and make way for the video.
actually, that was a pretty decent run, now that i look at it again.
one hurdle or barrier to having fun whilst sledging is the uphill return. having bombed down the hill on the sledge i can remember it being somewhat of a downer to have to drag the sledge / ICI plaggy bag all the way back up to do it again. well, that was a downer and removing all the barbed wire or broken glass out of aspects of your body with thanks to the joyless farmer.
in fairness and with all credit, though, William seemed to love the walk back up as much as the ride down. not once, for instance, did he turn and ask me to carry the sledge up for him.
this is no doubt all due or down to him having a spectacular and splendid time with several friends who were also making the most of the snow. it seems they spoke of how awesome the sledging was as they walked up, discussing the strategy for the next run.
when i was of an age when sledging was something i did i dare say we had no such conversations. one would, after all, soon get bored of hearing how fantastic and awesome i was at it, and how i was oh so much better than anyone else.
much to the distress of William we could not, of course, spend as much time as he wished out on the hills. exactly how much time he wanted to be there was "all of it". to resolve this issue, he and his mother, also known or referred to as my (considerably) better half, had the genius and wise idea to construct a sledge in the back garden.
yes, there was that much snow to allow us to do this, and yes even James agreed it was smart and agreed to go and have a go on it.
some video of the sledge hill in the garden? why not.
yes, that is indeed and of course William running down it. i do keep wanting to call it a "sledge ramp", but that would be wrong. the idea of a ramp is that you go up it, not down, is it not.
make no mistake with the above comments, by the way. as much as William loves the snow, he is by no means immune to feeling the cold of it. yes, indeed, he found it most chilly - but not quite so chilled as to not be out having fun in it.
i do really rather like this picture above, the last of this post. not because it shows he who my (considerably) better half assures me is my son being cold and freezing, but rather because he has an ace, boss David Lee Roth like expression on the go.
well, then, that's that for yet another post on all that snow. perhaps by the time this gets published and goes "live", all and sundry will have forgotten of it. if so, may this be a most pleasant of reminders.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment