What was I saying about the weather? Last Wednesday night/Thursday morning, half the country came to a full stop. Why? Because of a couple of inches of snow!!!!! What a joke! Well, I thought so but a lot of the people stuck in cars for 11 hours didn’t think so! Where do we live? Has anyone in England seen snow before? They claim it dosen’t snow here very often, but I have seen snow twice this winter so far, and this happens evey year. Trains stopped; Stanstead airport closed; planes where delayed at Heathrow. Anyone who lived through the Ice Storm in Canada would have been excused for thinking a disaster like that was taking place here, not just two, yes, two inches of snow, which all melted within two days. Come on Brits., get it together!!!! Meanwhile guess what is forcast for tonight and tomorrow? Snow! Watch for the next installment of “Winter in England”!!!

The builders have almost finished, the roofer has to felt the roof sometime, soon I hope. Our garage is now transformed into something usable.

Dave and I went to Lincoln on the w/e to visit a long time friend of Dave’s: Dave and his wife Ginna. We had a great time, especially the Daves who where able to debate politics untill the cows came home (or went for milking) and still couldn’t agree!!

Today I went to see the specialist who was in charge of the team who operated on me (because it was only an appendix I didn’t warrent the top surgeon). He explained what it was like – a mess – and why the scar is so large and jagged – because the appendix was around the back of me. Anyway, I am fine and all finished with. I asked him why surgeons in this country are not called Dr. but are referred to professionally as Mr. He explained it went back to the old days where the guys who cut you up were not even Doctors, but just handy with the saw. Also it is a peculiarly British thing to think it is an achivement after being a Dr., to suddenly become a Mr. again when one qualifies as a surgeon.

The Challenger disaster – found out about it while at Dave and Ginna’s. We get very complacent, I hadn’t even realised there was a manned mission in progress. Just goes to show vigilance is always neccessary.