1st December is xmas tree day :D get the decs up.... we were the warmest place in the UK today. We have had snow but it all melted.

Dawn

I should but with budget cuts it really wouldn't surprise me if the LA tried not too. They had teachers doing all sorts of stupid shit over the Summer to claw back hours they'd "missed" from getting stuck because of the volcano at Easter :s

The roads are even worse today and even though I was planning on getting the train, there's no bus connections today so that means another day off.

Roads here were terrible yesterday. Not sure whats happened to the gritters?

I've just heard that you wouldn't even know it had been snowing in the town where the council office is based so they're obviously using all the grit to make sure they're looked after :rolleeyes:

Apparently the motorway is backed up from Hamilton all the way into Glasgow already, that's over 10 miles :eek:

Forth Road Bridge has been closed in both directions for the last 2-3hrs and Edinburgh airport shut until 6pm at the earliest.

I somehow managed to get to Dundee and back yesterday (not without incident!) so I can work from home now I have my graphics tablet from the office. Trouble is, my wife and I are now scrapping over who has access to our only computer in the house as she's working from home as well! :D

I think you misunderstand the true concept of working from home ;)

I literally don't have any work I can do since I'm on supply and haven't met any of these kids yet so I'm going into Glasgow to do some Xmas shopping, though the Muppet Christmas Carol is on and I'd quite like to watch that first.

It sounds like I might get paid too. The school said since I'd made a decent attempt to get there it wouldn't count as an absence / day off :)

Lucky you. I have pined for Saudi a little this week that's how bad it's been up here.

Happy advent calender day everyone :D

We were actually in Cyprus last week.

We got on the plane to come home on Saturday in 26deg sunshine and landed in -6deg with snow!! :shock:

I wish we'd just stayed in the Med!

All South Lanark schools are shut tomorrow :D

And I managed to get all of my xmas shopping minus my mum's done today so I think I'll have a nice lazy day shooting commies in black ops tomorrow.

Shopping list:

Father: Gift certificates to a golf course
Mother: Wine glasses + ???
Brother: Sweaters
Best friend: .45 caliber pistol + neckties
Next best friend: Tomahawk + Vodka (maybe vodka, not sure yet)
Next best friend: Not sure. Possibly gift cards of some sort
Her: ??? What do you get for a woman who buys herself everything she wants?
Coworkers: Bookstore gift cards
Bank employees: Chocolates

I've bought for the coworkers only and have built the .45 for my best friend. Other than that, I haven't done any shopping. It's a good thing I'm nearly a year ahead on my car payment.

Hoping to turn my needing a second, feminine opinion on the clothes and wine glasses into a shopping trip with Her.

Adrian

Its funny you say that. Went to Bedford town center yesterday and its remarkable how well its been cleaned up especially near town hall.

love Bedford.... just shows what they can do when they want to .

Dawn

When was the last time you went to Bedford Dawn?

Just to prove that my time in Saudi wasn't totally squandered I've got a batch of cranberry and blackcurrant wine brewing away as we speak.

Using a quick 7-10 day fermentation method so by time Christmas rolls round it should taste realy good and be lethal :D

10 yrs ago .... I used to live there when I was a kid, then spent quite a bit of time there as a teenager also...

Love the river.... happy memories of being there with my family :D

I still havent got the tree up... tomorrow has to be the day !

Dawn

Well Dawn its changed a hell of a lot in the passed 10 years. The shopping area has been "done up" and well looks like Stevenage. Also its not the freindlist of places to go to now. Theres alot of ummm youths that hang around.

STEVENAGE.... r u joking, I cant stand Stevenage.... thats awful.... wonder why they did that..... Bedford always had so much character... last I was there many Italians were living there:D

Dawn

Shopping is done, with the exception of a last couple of little bits for the Mrs.
Managed to leave a Tesco bag with presents for her in the car over the weekend. Forgot to move them this morning - she discovered them.....:rolleyes:

Kids presents are safely wrapped and tucked away, with the exception of their PS2's and games.

Decorations all went up at the weekend and I only have another 3 1/2 days to go until I finish for 3 1/2 weeks.

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOO pissed off. It took me over 5 hours to get home from work.

The whole of Central Scotland has ground to a halt. Literally nothing is moving between Glasgow and Edinburgh (50+miles) and all of the other main roads and arteries (including the ones I have to use to go get too and from work) are logged up for miles.

I am so not done shopping and time is just running out
Its so great to shop online though!

We have no snow at all where I am (Bedfordshire).
What we did have all got washed away by the rain on Friday & Saturday night and now it's just the odd bit of ice.

Walked the dog along the canal yesterday and that had a good couple of inches of ice on the top of it.

It's as cold as a witch's tit here now, which makes heading down to the Christmas Markets at every available opportunity - for a mulled wine or a hot spiced rum - an absolute necessity.

Oh my, this thread has been taken over by the British. It's about time an American posts here.

It got up to a balmy 14 degrees today (about -10 degrees for you Celsius lovers). Considering the weather we got last week, today might as well have been summer. But the best part about winter is the SNOW!!! I love shoveling!!!

Not. The snow was cool for the first 4 hours we had it, then it just got on my nerves. And where I live, it doesn't leave until March usually; in fact, we get BLIZZARDS in March. And then comes the Red River Valley floods. And then we go put sandbags on the river to keep it from ruining houses.

I frequently ask myself why I live here. The summers here are great, though. They can get very hot.

where about in beds r u ?

The tree is up ..... :D shopping also done, just a bit more left for friends...

Dawn

I know! its used to have character but no more. There are some Italians left but its mainly Asian there now.

I love Christmas. :D

Linslade - which is technically the posh part of Leighton Buzzard.....

Sweet got another snow day tomorrow which wraps up my practically non existant stint at a behavioural school :D

used to enjoy shopping in LB... and also went to a dentist there many moons ago......

Dawn

We had a bit of snow over here last week, luckily it wasn't enough to disrupt life too much (although the ice left behind has led to a broken coccyx for me. Boo :( ). Really starting to get into the Christmas mood now- took a trip to the Christmas markets in Cologne a couple of weeks ago and since then all I've been doing is counting down the days until I get to go home for Christmas, providing that the snow f***s off byu that point. No way I'm staying in this dump for Christmas!

wtf I thought Belgium would be awesome this time of year?

I take it you've been getting updates about the weather here? The M8 closed for a day and a half :s It would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic.

Yep, seems every second Facebook update is about the bloody snow! My uni in Edinburgh has been closed for the past week, exams have had to be cancelled and the like, of course this has to happen when I'm on my year abroad;) Seems like it's still really bad up Aberdeen way, one of my friends up there was snowed in for about 4 days. Just hope its cleared up enough for my flight to be able to get in at Edinburgh and then drive up to Aberdeen without getting stuck somewhere.

Just got the gift card for my dad and the tomahawk for my friend in the mail. Plus my Christmas donation order came in at the bookstore. Fingers crossed I finish my shopping soon.

No snow here. Flurries off and on, but nothing that stays.

Adrian

The wife is seriously pee'd off with Zavvi at the moment.
She ordered my main present from them on 24th November as it was on sale at a price far better than anywhere else (I have NO idea what it is).
They said it was in stock, took her order, processed payment and suprise surprise, it's now out of stock.

All well and good you'd think, except they are now not expecting a new shipment until after Christmas.

She's now hounding them on a daily basis and it's now classed as a "Special Order" meaning we get priority when any stock arrives.

She would cancel the order and go elsewhere, except it seems that everyone is having the same problem with that item and the supplier.

I'm not too fussed whether I get whatever it is before or after xmas. I'll be too busy playing Hornby & Scalextric with my 4 year old!

Note to self (and anybody who wants to listen): NEVER go to the Trafford Centre in the two weeks before Christmas.

That probably stands for just about anywhere in the 2+ weeks before Christmas. I went food shopping today and you would have thought that the apocalypse was upon us - it was that crowded.

Its getting like that here, Its stupid.

Yeap the big supermarket / shopping centres car parks have massive queues of cars waiting. I didn't see this before.

I work for Canada's largest grocery company and our sales budget for the week of Christmas is just unreal - never mind the amount of product that is coming through our receiving door. That being said, I'm glad to be on midnights and not having to deal with the oh-so-pleasant customers.