Well I didn't move here for the Weather!

Let in snow, let it snow, let it snow

I am a 70s child.

Born in Australia, the home of the long hot summers.

Summer basically meant hours either at the beach, or (when we got it in the mid 70s) our home swimming pool. Swimming, playing, sun baking (yes we did that back then, A LOT).

My father was a 1960 Olympian in Water Polo, A1 Football player and several times junior Port River Swim champion. The SA Water Polo Men’s Best and Fairest Medal is named after him.

My mother a Hurley Medallist (top state player) in Netball.

Summers were spent out at netball courts and around swimming pools.

My father coached the U18 Men’s State Water Polo team. They would often be at our house doing pre-season training in our pool.

There and at competitions, bronzed men in tight black speedos were a sight to behold! They were not often clothed. I was going to say ‘fully clothed’ but do you count just a t-shirt with speedos ‘clothed’?

My mum talks about the first time she gave my dad a lift home (before they started dating). He had lost his car keys and was walking across the Port River Bridge in his thongs (flip flops), speedos with a towel hanging over his shoulder. Nothing else. Perfectly normal!

Summer breathed life into me, every year.

And because we lived in Adelaide, the winters were not that bad.

In 2006 my husband and I moved to Melbourne, which has significantly drearier weather than Adelaide.

Winters are cold and wet and down right horrible sometimes.

Fast forward to 2017 and we were coming up to our goal of living in the UK for a year.

All my friends teased me about how I’m going to ‘love’ the weather.

I would say ‘well I’m not moving there for the weather, and besides it’s only for one year’.

Anyone can do anything for one year right?

Plus a bonus might be we will see snow. I LOVE snow.

We moved to Reading, west of London but in the south.

It snows there sometimes but not often and not much.

I was convinced it would snow!

One week there was prediction of snow on the weekend and I said to my son’s Headmaster that we were definitely going to get some.

He laughed at me “We haven’t had snow in 7 years Michelle, I doubt we will get it now”.

Saturday looked promising but still no snow. Sunday morning when we woke, my husband looked out the window and I said ‘Any snow?’ And he said ‘yes’!

Seriously?

‘Come take a look’ he said.

This was the view from our bedroom window!

Well these three Australians were excited!

You see, it doesn’t matter if it’s cold when it snows, does it?

Everything looks pretty. Everything looks clean and shiny and new.

Even out the front looked the prettiest we’ve ever seen it.

But sadly, rain came in the afternoon and by 10am the next morning not much remained! ??

We had fun though, while it lasted.

It snowed again in the January and then February and at the beginning of March, there was so much snow the town came to an almost standstill!

Because hilariously, for a country that in the north it is not uncommon for large snow falls, down here in the south things don’t work properly if there is too much of it.

Trains and buses get cancelled. No one can go anywhere because they don’t have winter tyres for their cars. Pipes freeze water in them, deliveries can’t be made, which means supermarket shelves get bare. Cue mild panic.

One amazing thing that happens when there is lots of snow (with cloud cover) is the night is so bright! The sky looks white too.

My engineer husband will tell you how thats reflection of XYZ?? ??

It was happening all over Europe at this time too. The ‘Beast from the East’ they were calling it.

Normally at this time of the year it’s dark by 5-6pm, but this image at 10:15pm snows how ‘light’ the sky really is after a good snowfall.

We had certainly never seen anything like it in Australia.

We had an abundance that year. Two weeks later, snow again!

Clearly my wishing for it helped enormously (yes I am proud of my powers of snow persuasion). ???

But for the few ‘good’ days when snow falls, there are plenty of very bleak, dreary, ordinary, cold damp days, that seep into your bones and make you feel miserable.

Pretty well sums up what Australian’s might call the English!

You see my 40 year dream of living and studying in England, at the University of Oxford, meant I would / could put up with anything.

Our one year turned into two.

And 2 years after that we returned, this time for 3+ years.

The winters are still awful and we have seen only fleeting glimpses of snow in the past, almost 3 years (our current yard is the first image).

The one time it really snowed, we were in Australia for Christmas.

We missed it by 3 days! ??

That’s what you get when you have homes in two countries.

As I keep telling people, we didn’t move here for the weather!

As we seek excellence in all we do, I want to share with you what I’m up to each week. It will keep me accountable to you, my readers and it will also help me to reflect on what I’ve done over the previous week. I’d love to get your feedback on whether you think this is a good idea or not.

?? This Week’s Progress

I have started on the Excellence Takes Courage website and hope to have it finalised in the next couple of weeks.

?? This Week’s Reading

I am continuing with the ‘Finish’ book I mentioned last week, but I am also reading the exhibition catalogue from ‘Holbein at the Tudor Court’, which is on at the Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace until April 14. I am preparing a special issue of my history travel newsletter for paid subscribers about it.

?? This Week’s Viewing

This week we finished watching the latest series of Drive to Survive on Netflix. Back in the 80s I worked at the first few Australian Grand Prix’s in Adelaide so have always liked watching it. This series renewed my interest and certainly that of my children in F1 racing.

?? - Last Week’s Traveling Through History Newsletter

Issue 41: Oxford Colleges - Magdalen, Oriel and Somerville

???- Tilt Your Business Podcast - This Weeks Episode

Ep 31: How to do an effective Call To Action (CTA)

???- Business on the Bloc Podcast - This Weeks Episode

Ep 72: Apple & Google: The AI Dream Team

Michelle is a Writer, Marketer, Content Entrepreneur, Historian (Mst Oxon) and mother of 3 boys.

After 25 years in business and as the ‘Content Marketing Queen’ for over 13 years, she has helped countless small businesses understand and develop their content strategies and focus on a customer first approach.

On International Women’s Day in March 2024, Michelle hung up her crown so that she could be a Queen Maker to inspire and assist women over 40, rise up to be the Queens they were born to be.

At Excellence Takes Courage we will navigate together what it takes to achieve excellence, with courage.

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