no thanks on the snow, I'll have some sunshine please

I woke up this morning and saw snow and thought some very mad words to myself, I was not looking for a snow day and mainly I was wondering how bad it was outside. You can only imagine my delight when I went to have a post workout shower before work and discovered I had no running water, the pipes had frozen solid and I thought yay, yet another reason to love snow ( in case it wasn't obvious, even my inner monologue is sarcastic).

If you're fretting about the plight of an unwashed Laura then let me reassure you by confirming I have running water once again and you really don't realise how much water you use until you have to use bottles for everything.

I haven't always been anti snow, in fact as a child I used to hope it would snow every time winter drew near and would happily build snow men and traipse around in it. In fact I didn't even start to dislike until I turned 20 and moved to Switzerland to work as an Au pair (above photo is me by one of many snowy mountains I visited at the time) . I will admit however that Ireland doesn't get a lot of snow so perhaps it was lack of exposure to it that made it so novel for me. However if exposure to snow was what I was after then I certainly chose the ideal destination for working abroad, Switzerland sure loves its snow. I was there just under a year and I think we had at least two solid months of it( its hard to be sure as it was 10 years ago, eeek that makes me feel old) and at first it was great and I couldn't get enough of it. Loving the way it painted the city white and glossed over all the ugliness giving everything a pristine clean look. In case you're thinking I did a lot of skiing while over there well then you would be wrong, there are no real guidelines for what you can pay your au pair so most families go with allowing you to live in and giving you as little money as possible. So skiing was not an option, nor did I have any proper snow gear but that didn't stop me going up the mountains with friends and sleighing. In case you wondering sleighing in jeans is a terrible terrible idea. you tend to forget that snow turns to water until you're knee deep in it and knee deep in wet, cold denim is not a pleasant experience. Maybe If I'd had proper snow gear Id have liked it more but it didn't take long before I grew tired of the biting cold as I waited for the bus and everything I wore getting soaked in snow and just the winter that felt like it was never going to end. Fortunately it did and the reason I left Switzerland is a whole other story.

Then two years ago I moved to Edinburgh, it was supposed to be semi permanent if not a permanent move ( in fact the girls I moved over with still live there) but Somehow I was convinced that I should move home, possibly not my smartest choice but such is life. Anyway, I moved over in September and it was lovely and good until about late November when Winter kicked in and I came face to face with my old nemesis, snow.
By now I had already established that I was not a fan of snow no matter how fluffy it looked upon the ground and it did not endear me to it when my morning commute ( which was already an hour on two different buses) got longer because the bad weather meant that the bus couldn't go down our road) and I had to walk 20 minutes in ankle deep snow just to get to the next bus stop in either waterproof shoes with no grip ( and arrive to work with a very bruised bum) or my very grippy boots that absorbed water making me arrive at work more pissed off than necessary. I was all prepared to grit my teeth and and wait out the snow and then one day in early December we were all sent home as the roads had become so icy that all the buses had stopped running. The only way home was to walk and the only route I knew back there was the bus route and the only shoes I had with me were the grippy boots that would have made wonderful sponges so needless to say I was about 5 minutes out of work when my boots were soaked through and my socks had started to make squishy noises with every step. I had to walk ridiculously slow as the footpaths were covered with snow and icy patches and id already fallen on my bum enough for one winter. It was without question the most miserable walk Ive ever been on ( besides that time in first year of college where I stupidly agreed to do 13 mile charity walk in rain and winds so strong there was a small craft warning ) and it took me over three hours to get home. I think this once and for all soured my out look on Edinburgh as a city and did not bring me any closer to loving snow. I think the final straw for me is when days before Christmas I was due to move home and out of my apartment all in one day and my flight got cancelled because of bad weather, everyone I knew in Edinburgh had already made it home on earlier flights and I came pretty close to being stranded over Christmas without anywhere to stay.

So that is why I felt nothing but annoyance when I made my way slowly to work with great trepidation trying not to fall on my ass but coming very close and kind of hoping this is the last bit of snow i'll be seeing for a while