The idea of snow is great, the reality, not so much | Emma Kay

With snow a no-show for a lot of people this Christmas, the disappointment for some was blatant.
Looking up Nelson Lane toward the Nelson Monument in the snow of 2010.Looking up Nelson Lane toward the Nelson Monument in the snow of 2010.
Looking up Nelson Lane toward the Nelson Monument in the snow of 2010.

People were longing for the icy fluff to block their driveways and bolster their curtailed Christmas.

With many growing frostier towards our own government, there was the hope that snow might stave off the homebound boredom we are enduring in Tier Four and get the kids out the door.

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But do we really miss the snow, or is it simply the memories it brings?

There has not been much to look forward to this year. Turning to nostalgia is a powerful weapon to combat Covid: Snowmen appearing in front gardens like lopsided ice-creams. Smiles made of sticks and hollow finger poked eyes. The scream that accompanied snowball fights. Crushing snow into sludge with your fingers and feeling the frostbite. Waking up to see the whole world transformed overnight and looking like white glitter, is the image imprinted into our minds and memories.

As a child we had plastic bread wrappers tied round our hands as an extra layer against the biting cold. Walking along the black sludge pavements like a tightrope walker, desperate not to slip and slide along the road. What would usually be a five minute walk would turn into a half an hour trundle of wobbly worry.

Good times, but for those feeling sad by the lack of a cold snap with snow, let us not forget the perils of the cold weather too. Snow was always fun if you were stuck at home, otherwise you would be stuck out there in the wilderness trying to navigate through a stone-cold sleet of panic and delay. In 2018 to 2019 there were an estimated 23,200 winter deaths in England and Wales. Having a white Christmas is convenient but ultimately can be more trouble than it is worth.

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The unemployment rate is up at 4.9 per cent with 1.69m people unemployed. Redundancies are at record levels. People are not getting the help they need and are struggling to find work in the Covid panic with further struggles ahead for many due to Brexit. The cost of keeping warm weighs heavily on many minds.

The road to the future is a deep puddle of distortion and blunder that we all have to navigate, no matter where we sit on the ladder.

Let’s leave the winter white till next year.

Make you new year’s resolutions count in 2021

Making a meaningful new year’s resolution goes beyond what we decide on December 31.

We make jokes and banter about drinking less and dieting more but it often amounts to nothing.

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Why are resolutions the empty promises of tomorrow? Simple. We set out to make resolutions blindly rather than resolve to complete a task we are already doing. This is the trap we must avoid.

Hopefully in the pandemonium of the pandemic, people can reflect on personal wins this year too. It may be acquiring new cookery skills, or clearing out the house, walking more, cutting back on the drink or finding a newfound love for a quirky new hobby.

All of these things should be taken into account and added to the win pile for personal praise.

The fresh start to 2021 and the kicking of 2020 into touch is flush with promise and hope.

Let’s make this year count!

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Brexit has been delivered – and the package is a broken mess

Brexit is finally here, much to the cheers of the frantic Eurosceptics, chomping at the bit for four years to get it done.

The drawbacks becoming ever apparent, it is not a good one feeling for some.

There are some advantages of course pertaining to regulations and law-making. What lies beyond Brexit is a shadowy future of doubt and financial loss. The emotional feeling of us ‘going it alone’ does not automatically stir passion and patriotic freedom. For many businesses, it casts a heavy stone, until it drops them into the void.

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So what are we left with? Bruised and hearts bleeding over who is right and who is wrong.

Politics plunged into social antagonism and devoid of emotional reasoning. Nobody got what they wanted, but the parcel came anyway. It’s been badly tied and whatever was inside is broken and battered beyond use.

It is finally here at the worst possible time.

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