Puddles are freezing m'lud.

We have about half an inch of snow but it's been biting cold all day.

You have to laugh at the media coverage re the snow and ice. "stay at home unless its an emergency" etc. It winter for f@@ks sake! I suppose because its happening in the South East makes it news-worthy. No reports about snow North of the border. We just get on with it.

My thoughts are with you as I struggle the 10 minute drive down to my favourite beach-Clovelly which is like an enclosed huge pool with the mildest of surf surrounded by a huge broadwalk with deck chairs reminiscent of an Adriatic resort..perfect hot sunny weather with a hint of a breeze and the most stunningly blue skies.

I think of you as amble up to the outdoors restaurant for a light lunch and a freezing beer,on the small hill overlooking all this.

Actually I think of you for about 30 seconds and then forget all about you.

But we do have something I don't think you have down under. Robins. The little redbreasts who have lived in my mews for 42 years to my certain knowledge come and sing for me on my window ledge as a thank you for the year long seeds and bread I give them.

Yes..those pretty little robins are uniquely yours.

I have to settle for dozens of pigeons who have decided my window ledges are their home and make weird gurgling noises that frighten the cat.

I hate bloody pigeons - they eat all the bird food and muscle out the smaller ones.
Mind you, in prison I did save a wounded pigeon from starvation by seagulls (the nastiest birds ever)... see my book!

Some of the shop keepers are so thick where I live. Considerate ones have cleared away the ice for safe passage to and from their shops. Others have just left it like an ice-rink outside where we saw several people slip over. The post mistress of our local PO couldn't clear it because 'its the job of the Council' and worried about someone falling over because 'they had tried to clear it'. It doesn't look like our Council have remembered we exist here and no paths have been cleared or gritted and are unlikely to (particularly the one outside the local old peoples home).
In the end, my wife and I spent 5 mins with a heavy iron street lamp cover cracking the pavement ice and sweeping it away half expecting to get arrested for 'vandalism'. I am not usually a brazen do-gooder, but just cynical and exasperated at human attitudes these days.