Friday Five!

Had an absolute blast at the retirement party!  Great dinner, hilarious speeches, lots of drink.  The hotel we stayed in (George Hotel, Inverary) was lovely and we had a jacuzzi bath!!!  I had a 2-hour bath this morning and was just totally blissed out! 

Awesome!  . And home in time to watch Scotland beat Italy in the Six Nations!!! 

The footage on the news of the M3 were shocking.  They must have had a LOT of snow.

It was weird, Basingstoke had tons, Bracknell had a significant amount (everyone was getting stuck trying to reach the roundabout at the end of my road), and Ascot just an inch or so. It's still surprising how badly they manage the main roads.

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I've been watching this on the news. Yoiks!

I have seen lots of small, light cars not doing very well in not very much snow. I'm not noticing snow tires or snow chains - hard to see on the TV, but the way the tires are spinning when people are gunning their engines to get un-stuck seems to indicate that.  Are snow tires/snow chains not a thing here?

I've been watching this on the news. Yoiks!

I have seen lots of small, light cars not doing very well in not very much snow. I'm not noticing snow tires or snow chains - hard to see on the TV, but the way the tires are spinning when people are gunning their engines to get un-stuck seems to indicate that.  Are snow tires/snow chains not a thing here?

No, they aren’t. We don’t get enough snow annually to justify spending out on things like snow tyres or chains.

It’s the same reason we don’t have air con in our houses - it’s not worth it for the small number of days each year that we get really hot temperatures.


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Ah, that explains a lot, then. I know when I used to have to drive in snow/ice in the States, if I had a choice between a bigger, heavier vehicle, or one with 4-wheel-drive, and a light one like most of the cars here, I'd go with the former. You can't take a sub-compact out on a snowy/icey road and get very far.

I did have a little Mazda GLC once, a tiny car for the USA. I used to have to put big bags of kitty litter in the back of the hatchback over the wheels (it was rear-wheel drive) to get additional weight or traction.  I also had some heavy cement blocks back there, too. The neighbors laughed, until I could get to work and the store and they could not.... I had a friend who used to fill the bed of his pickup truck with water, and let it freeze. Same thing - added weight for traction.

If winters keep on like this, it might do to invest in some snow cables. They're not terribly expensive (the last set I had in the States cost about $40), and they sure to make a difference when driving in snow!

(I loved that GLC - I drove it for over 300,000 miles and then sold it and bought another Mazda!   This is the model, and, actually, identical to the one I had. Wish I could have it again! It'd do great here.) 

Nan, both of our cars are also rear wheel drive.  Definitely not designed for snow.  As ksand said, as it snows every 5 years or so (down south), we don’t invest in anything snow related.

Wow. Every five years? Lucky you! Stay safe in all that!

Glasgow's gotten it both years I've been here, although this winter so far (knocking on wood) isn't nearly as intense as last winter. If I do get around to getting a car (which I'd do if we move out of town to a smaller community) I'll definitely be buying some chains. It looks like parts North, East, and West of us get much more of the solid stuff on the ground in the winter.   I figure the cost of the chains at 50pounds has gotta be less than getting towed out of a ditch? (Or is towing cheaper here than in the States?)

It's not just the snow, it's the ice. I've had two people recently tell me they have winter tyres that they keep on their cars year round. I'm just waiting for my current (completely rubbish) ones to wear out so that I can do the same.

Trouble is, I do so few miles, it'll take forever! 

Yeah, driving on ice is ugly! I used to live in a small community east of Amarillo (at the old air base). I had to drive in on I-40 for nightshift work in downtown, and one year we had a wicked ice storm. I was doing well, in my little GLC-with-the-kitty-litter until I went over an overpass that had iced up. Spun around like a top. Thank God I didn't roll, or go over the side. But I did end up facing the wrong way on the downslope of that overpass, hyperventilating, in the middle of the traffic lanes. Thank goodness it was 10:00pm and not when there was more traffic, or I'd have been hit for sure by the next guy who came over and spun out (saw it in my rearview mirror as I was continuing on).  It would take a lot to get me to actually go out and drive when it's icey, anymore. It's just too dangerous! Unless I'm trying to get the Daughter to A&E because an ambulance can't get through, I don't think I'll ever do it again.

The next time after the overpass incident that we had a bad ice event, I called in and said I wasn't coming to work. The boss had a conniption fit, and asked if I'd like to be unemployed. I responded that I'd rather be unemployed and alive, then dead trying to get to the job I had a the time (which didn't pay a heck of a lot, really.)  They didn't fire me, but they did call the other nightshift people and told them to stay home.

People don't realize how treacherous it really is, I think, sometimes.

Even with snow tires ice is treacherous. But putting snow tires on year round is a surefire way to wear them out faster and get worse gas mileage in warmer months. With the amount of rain here all weather tires are much safer, and avoiding roads when it's snowy or switching to snow tires for the winter if you're up north. Having a manual car and all wheel drive, or at least front wheel drive, helps if the tires aren't the most ideal. I used to keep clay cat litter & rock salt in my trunk in case I got stuck, and a small shovel. But if none of the other drivers know how to manage in snow I still don't want to be on the road with them!

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Yeah, that's what I thought but apparently they have changed and you can now keep them on all year round.

It was weird, Basingstoke had tons, Bracknell had a significant amount (everyone was getting stuck trying to reach the roundabout at the end of my road), and Ascot just an inch or so. It's still surprising how badly they manage the main roads.

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It’s because it’s so rare that we get snow like this here that they don’t really bother to invest tax money into it


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It’s because it’s so rare that we get snow like this here that they don’t really bother to invest tax money into it


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Completely aware of the reasons, but also climate change means more extreme weather events and changing jetstream patterns in the winter. Surprised to see snow like this again in my second winter here!

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Yeah, the Daughter had told me that Glasgow didn't get much in the way of winter (from her two winters here), just a dusting of snow and a lot of rain, and not terribly cold.  Not entirely accurate when compared with last year and, so far, this year.    Then again, she also said summer never had temps that were "too hot"  here, and we were into the upper 80fs a day or two last year, I believe. That was ~not~ good.

Completely aware of the reasons, but also climate change means more extreme weather events and changing jetstream patterns in the winter. Surprised to see snow like this again in my second winter here!

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Unfortunately I think until it's consistent for a few years in a row and for more than a day or two every year, they won't want to invest the money into it the way we would hope they would.