Snowday #3. Like Christmas holidays only better

School is closed again today. If you are grumpy about that fact, perhaps best you move along now because I think it's fab and I'm only going to annoy you.

We have managed to achieve one of my goals in life; a 2day week/5day weekend. Life is good.

After lunch today, we were all in the lounge and I realised that we all had time to just do nothing...or anything for once. Like Christmas holidays only not because there was no burning panic to go and visit people, no hyper children and no lounge full of new toys, tree, crap.

Yesterday I went to the shops. Not because I wanted to do a bit of panic buying with the rest of the village but because I am a disorganised person. I hadn't heard that we would be snowed in this week so hadn't thought to do any shopping before Tuesday so I went to the shops because when I went to the fridge on Wednesday afternoon thinking I would make stew and dumplings for tea, I found we had one carrot, a leek and five potatoes to go with the stewing beef that had been in the freezer for about a year.

I went to the Co-op, it was like a scene from The End of the World. The shelves were empty, not only was there no milk or bread, there was no fresh fruit or vegetable, unless one wrinkled red pepper counts. There were no cereals, eggs, or actually, anything really. I waded through the panicing panic buyers, suggesting that maybe they ought to buy some ballons and Christmas crackers since that was all that seemed to be left in the shop and walked up the road to the farm shop. Because this was a 10 min walk in knee-deep snow, the shop was empty (of customers) and full of food. Ha!

As I walked back home, past the Co-op, I noticed they had had a delivery and they had milk so I wandered back in to find even more frenzy as people struggled to carry 3 cartons of milk each to the end of the queue for the till that stretched all around the shop because 'Who knows when we will get milk again!'. Probably tomorrow but never mind, eh, lets help to perpetuate the panic.

In this snow-covered, mainly car-less world, people suddenly have time to talk to each other. The man next to me in the queue, was telling me how he never goes to the local shop because he doesn't have time as he works but since he hadn't been at work for a few days and he can't get anywhere else, he is glad the shop is there.

Neighbours are all working together to clear their road so that they can get to the main roads and talking to each other even though they have lived near each other for years and haven't really talked at all. Walking home from the shops, everyone wants to talk, maybe they wanted to mug me for the milk I had managed to get but I'd like to think otherwise ;)

I'd like to think that this community spirit would last but lets be honest, we know that come Monday, when the snow has all turned to ice, everyone will go back to their rushed, grumpy lives.