Well that was the understatement of the year...

Cold? It was positively tropical compared to the -10 glowing on my dashboard while driving to work yesterday. But it is oh so pretty and very festive so I'm not complaining, although over here in Wales we haven't had the fun and games going on in the rest of the UK. Personally I love getting snowed in but I sympathise with those poor souls stranded on motorways for hours and hours through the night, and for anyone who's old cold and lonely. Quick rant here - why oh why is the media falling over itself to relay doom and gloom and to flash up in neon lights the country's inability to cope, when it could be helping us to find our fighting spirit and get to grips with things? Apart from a few tiny tales of heroism (actually only one that I've heard - a farmer ferrying midwives to work on his tractor) its all 'look at other countries coping so well, aren't we rubbish?'. Where are the public information campaigns with tips for safe driving, how to keep warm indoors, alternative ways of working, helping out friends and neighbours, and so on? Where is the inspiration we need to pull ourselves together? Grrrrr. End of rant. And as for cycling - its back in the gym for me, I fall off enough when its not even slightly frosty. But very soon it will be Christmas and not long at all until May and long happy days traversing Nova Scotia on my trusty bike - yippee!