Best laid plans.

In the wee small hours of New Year’s Day we said goodbye to a friend whose birthday we had just celebrated. As those of us who were leaving put our coats on ready for the trek home I suggested that we should all meet again on the 25th of January to celebrate my birthday. 

As the date grew closer we started to hear rumblings about dire weather warnings. The cold snap was going to go out with a bang by dumping a load of snow everywhere on ... wait for it ... Friday 25th of January. Well, I’d already needlessly cancelled on social arrangement the previous Friday when the much forecast heavy snow failed to materialise. So we decided to wait until a little closer to the day. Transport to our house had been organised and we knew it would be hard to find another date when everyone would be available. Besides by Thursday evening I had purchased mussels in order to try out a new soup recipe involving the aforementioned mussels, cauliflower and various other ingredients. 

That purchase had in itself been a masterpiece of planning. On Thursday I went, as usual, to my Italian class, on the far side of the city centre. When we finished at 3 o’clock I walked up Oxford Road to catch a tram at St Peter’s Square. I debated whether to abandon the mussels as this tram would take me almost all the way home – well, a good deal of the way as it was headed for Oldham Mumps and would connect with my bus home. But I decided to hop off the tram at the Market Street stop, run into the Arndale Market, purchase my bag of mussels, scuttle back to the tram stop and catch the next tram to Oldham. These trams run every 12 minutes so I had little time to waste. All went well; I caught the tram and even managed the connection to my bus without having to wait more than a couple of minutes. Brilliant timing! 

On Thursday evening emails flew back and forth regarding weather on Friday and the cancellation or otherwise of my birthday supper. Once again we put off the decision, this time until Friday. The mussels had to be cooked anyway so the soup was being made whatever the weather. And for a while it looked as if all would be well. 

By 3.00 pm the snow had not arrived, although the forecast was still poor. However, somewhere around 5.00 the snow started gently but persistently and grew heavier. Reluctantly we decided to postpone celebrations until Sunday, when the weatherman promises us higher temperatures, rain and for some parts of the country possible flooding as the accumulated snow melts. 

It’s just as well we did cancel because by 8.00 the road was covered in snow and at midnight it was still snowing. This morning the area was doing its Christmas card impression once again. 

So Phil and I had the fancy soup – and will finish it off this evening. I’ll do something different tomorrow. 

 Still, other people have other, perhaps more serious problems. 

Iñaki Urdangarín, married to the Infanta Cristina of Spain, collectively “los Duques de Palma de Mallorca, has been eradicated from the web page of the Spanish royal family. Iñaki has been involved in so many tax evasion and corruption scams that King Juan Carlos is taking further steps to distance himself from his difficult son-in-law. Already last summer it was made clear that he wasn’t welcome at family get-togethers in Mallorca, despite being the Duke of Palma! 

 Then there’s Beyonce, who apparently did really well singing for President Obama at his inauguration ... until someone revealed that she had been miming! Shock! Horror! 

And finally there is Shakira’s new baby who is going to have to go through life called Milan. I am perhaps jumping to wrong conclusions. Maybe he isn’t named for the city in Italy but his mother is a great fan of the writer Milan Kundera. Hmmmm, I wonder. 

So, there it is. Life’s not too problematical after all.