The week in review

Greetings from Oxfordshire! It sure has been a dramatic week in these parts. The waters are high, so you can't rely on taking your ordinary route home.


And you realise it would have been a wise idea to invest in a pair of good ol' knee-high English Wellies. That way you might have made it across the meadow to the pub, the pub with the roaring fire and cider on tap, rather than standing mournfully in your suddenly woefully inadequate hiking shoes. (Not pictured: the Mudpit of Doom.)


Also this past week: Oxfordshire's snow of the season! It happened overnight and was almost gone by noon, of course. This paltry dusting - shown here just before sunrise - caused many to call into work saying they were 'snowed in'. (Photo from here.)


Allow me a moment to snort in disbelief. Sure, call in and say the roads are slippery and you'd rather not risk hitting black ice. Fair enough; cars don't have snow tires - sorry, tyres - here. But two centimetres of wet snow doesn't make you 'snowed in'. 'Snowed in' means having to dig your car out. And having to climb into your house through a second-story window. I don't know about you, but that's what I tell foreigners about winter in Canada. Besides, it's obviously what they want to hear. In a recent Guardian article about expat Brits, their single, solitary example of a Brit who had emigrated to Canada was some guy who became a Mountie in Nunavet (sic).

In other exciting developments, we've acquired a dehumidifier. Since moving into this flat I've had a pair of hiking boots and a knapsack grow mold. We were fighting a losing battle against black mildew on the window frames, but the discovery of fuzzy white stuff growing on the inside of our side door was the final straw. When we first plugged in the dehumidifier and allowed it to calibrate, it got a humidity reading of 89 (out of a possible 100!). This is one damp country. On the positive side, static cling, the curse of winter in Canada, is but a distant memory.

We've also inherited a powerful vacuum cleaner (to replace the old, useless one). The amount of dust it just took out of the carpets has increased my resolve to abolish wall-to-wall carpeting. Not to mention all the hair it picked up - anyone who lives with a long-locked person can guess the horror show that results from the combination of carpeting and an ineffective vacuum. I know I'm obsessed. But many people here genuinely believe carpeting is superior, that hardwood floors are cold and sterile, and my conscience won't let me rest until I make them understand how much better their lives could be.

Anyway, no need to worry: we've survived Snowstorm '07. Today it was 10 degrees and we flung all the windows open to clean. Laundry is hanging on the line, surfaces are sparkling, curtains are waving merrily in the breeze. Feels like spring!