In the bleak early winter

Sunday 5th December 20101.
Last winter I liked the snow when it first arrived, I looked forward to going sledging. It was only after a week of several cancelled lessons that I became weary of it. Last week, the snow arrived on Thursday afternoon and I was already sick of it by Friday morning.
Last Friday morning the plan had been for one of my Ullapool pupils to drive the 60 miles to Inverness for a lesson there, concentrating on roundabouts (there are none in Ullapool), then she would take the bus home. With the snowy conditions getting worse I gave her the option of just staying in Ullapool if she did not feel comfortable with the Inverness drive. After her lesson (in Ullapool), I drove back to Inverness for the afternoon’s lessons and was very relieved that my pupil had decided not to drive; the conditions en route were far worse than they had been in Ullapool. I may be biased, but I consider myself to be a competent, safe driver. It may be a 60mph road, but it was rarely safe to go above 40. That didn’t stop the idiot who overtook me when he had no way of knowing what was coming around the approaching bend. I dropped back to keep well clear of him as he tried to overtake the car ahead of me - his tyres weren’t gripping in the snow and the back of his car began fishtailing as he tried to accelerate. Finally he accepted that it was ridiculous trying to overtake in such conditions and pulled in behind the car. Part of me almost hoped that he had spun (safely) off the road, then, maybe, he might have learned how dangerously stupid he had been.
To be fair, I have been impressed with the driving of most people over the last week. The conditions have been lethal, even on the main roads. Of course, you get the odd numpty who drives too closely behind, at a distance that would be risky in good conditions, but most people seem to be patient and keeping at appropriate speeds (driving far too slowly is just as bad because it may encourage people to overtake when it is unsafe).

So far, I have only had 7 hours of cancellations due to the weather, so I am keeping everything tightly crossed in the hope that the thaw is not too far away. My pupils in Elgin have been most badly affected due to the continuing snow-fall. Saturday afternoon I completely cleared my car of snow and ice, only for it to be completely covered in 20cm of snow within a couple of hours. Inverness and Ullapool haven’t had quite as much snow, but the sub-zero temperatures mean that none of it is melting. Loch Glascarnoch (between Inverness and Ullapool) recorded -16°C on Sunday night, while Altnaharra (further north) dropped to -20°C two days later. This morning, in Ullapool, my car looked like a dirty, black ice-cube, but I had no lessons until 11am, by which time the sun had completely melted two sides of it. In fact, judging by the forecast, the West Highlands seem to have the best weather in almost the whole of the UK for the next few days - no more snow and even positive temperatures - but I’m still less than optimistic about the outlook in Moray.

It is at times like this - atrocious weather, etc - that the smallest crumbs of good news provide much needed relief. Today has been brightened up every half-hour when, during the sports news, the various correspondents all refer to West Ham Utd’s 4 - 0 victory over Manchester Utd as a ‘thrashing’. With Liverpool’s recent failure to build on good results (plus the loss of Steve Gerrard and Jamie Carragher to injury), it is always a warm consolation to see Sir Alex Ferguson's face (beneath his comedy pixie hat) and hear Man Utd fans unconvincingly trying to dismiss such results because ‘the Carling Cup doesn’t matter.’ One of life’s little pleasures.