Let it snow, let it snow … oh, it snows in London!

Posted on Feb 10, 2012 in Events | 4 comments

So, in case the look on my face is not clear enough – I’m thrilled that it snowed in London last weekend. I was slightly disappointed that there wasn’t a white Christmas and it was starting to look that I was going to be so unlucky not to be able to experience snow while living here in London.

Well, the good news is that I lucked out.

I had just come home from watching a play called The Pitchfork Disney (written by Philip Ridley, the playwright for The Fastest Clock in the Universe which I acted in back in 2006 – I got to meet him too!) and as we walked into the theatre, it started snowing. By the time we left, the snow had already settled (enough for me to throw a snowball at my friend Mike, at least) and it was really coming down.

So I thought there’s no time like now to write this blog post. After all, while I have seen a bit of snow before, this was my first proper snowfall in all of my years of travelling. I am about to head to bed but I am looking forward to looking out of my window tomorrow morning and seeing the same shot as above, which I took from my room window on Sunday.

I am looking out now and I can already see it, even in the dark. The moonlight really reflects nicely on the white.

But let’s go back to Saturday night when I was already anticipating the snow. People in London talk a lot about how unreliable weather forecasts are but this time, they got it right. We were expecting snow to fall at 6pm and almost to the second, I got a phone call from Justin who told me that it was snowing!

I was so excited that I stayed out for a long as I could after dinner and drinks with my friend Adam. We even went into Sainsbury to buy ice cream (I had to experience eating ice cream while it snowed!). And even dropping my phone in the snow – my pockets were full with my gloves and beanie – and having someone pick it up and refusing to return it unless I paid him £20 could dampen my mood.

Still, it was late and I couldn’t do too much by myself so I made plans with Adam and Justin to meet the next morning at Clapham Common, the park area near where we all live to play around with the snow a little (or a lot!). That was where the first photo in this post was taken.

This was the beautiful sight that greeted me when I got to the Common. It was what I had expected and more. Granted, it wasn’t as much snow as probably in some other countries but it was good enough for me. I really enjoyed looking at how white everything was, just trudging along in my boots.

I enjoyed watching people – children and adults alike – building snowmen. I saw a lot of love everywhere, couples walking around holding hands and being affectionate with each other. And the best part was children running around playing with the snow, having snow fights and just running around.

We had our own fun. We took a walk around, soaked the athmosphere in and at certain points, started throwing snowballs at each other. They both also convinced me to make a snow angel (only to tell me later that the dampness and messiness I felt was the reason why they didn’t join me!). We saw the lake that was a little bit frozen, we saw guys playing rugby in shorts and saw lots of people walking around with fancy cameras.

But my favourite, and most memorably part, was Adam and I building a snowman – the first ever in my life.

12.44am Greenwich Meridian Time