You can put a price on a shiny new toy, but you can’t put a price on cold slushy joy. So why isn’t it snowing tonight like it’s supposed to?
We’re told London’s heaviest snowfall for 18 years cost the UK £1bn. We need to reassess the way we measure life.
If you are as disappointed as me that tonight’s predicted snowstorms have arived as rain – well, meet me by the melting remains of the igloo on Brockwell Park.
Snow sculpture in Brixton
I’m already getting nostalgic about last Monday, when schools and offices were shut, inspiring spontaneous creativity in the shape of a thousand snow sculptures. When hundreds of South Londoners converged on Brockwell Park like the Victorians crowding on the frozen Thames for the ice fairs (you know, the ones the climate-change denying ecotards whine about while desperately trying to ignore the elephant of scientific opinion looming over them).
Grown men rolled giant snowballs; children skudded down the hill on sledges hastily fashioned from bin tops and ‘for sale’ signs (there has to be some use for them). Strangers laughed with each other and stopped to chat over snowmen; it was a gloriously spontaneous celebration, better than any grimly planned bank holiday, and the perfect antidote to months of financial bombardment. A timely reminder of what counts.
Of course, I made sure I had my new Canon G10 with me to take a few shots. It’s not like I’m giving up conspicuous consumption altogether…
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- Snow sculpture in Brixton
