Path clearing and roadworks

The Best Beloved wants to clear our drive or at least a path from front door to pavement and around the two immobilised cars. My question was simple:"Why?"

Was she expecting a sudden influx of visitors? Was she intending to use the cars? We have been visited by the kids and had a lovely meal and lots of fun playing charades (The Best Beloved's rendition of "Transformers 2; Revenge of the Fallen" was incredibly funny as revenge is not a concept she deals in and her sub-textual delivery was beautiful and wondrously naive. I, on the other hand, could do 'revenge' and 'petty spite' easily). However they walked and so found no hardship crossing our small drive. We have a sign on the front door dissuading cold callers (a particularly apt expression in this seasonal weather). The Best Beloved has almost recovered fully from her hamstring problem, exacerbated by a fall in the drive early in the Christmas holiday. Therefore, we are able to walk everywhere we want to go. If necessary and are using the shopping trolley we will catch bus into Havant and back. In order to visit her mother, the Best Beloved will use two buses. The cars are redundant at the moment and the hill that is our Grove is ungritted and looks treacherous for the rare vehicle on the move. The milkman still arrives , bless his warm woollen socks, and leaves our order.

The other point I made was that once you clear the path and drive you then have to keep it clear as it can become a liability. Perhaps it was all those decades living in Bradford that has made me a bit of a curmudgeon and resistant to the charms of snow? I know Lord Adonis has spoken up in defence of common sense and community spirit to encourage people to clear their frontages despite council warnings of liability. My worry is that you can create skating rinks rather than welcoming paths. You do need to put something down on the cleared surfaces. I am starting to worry about all this salt we have sprayed on the roads - where will it all go when the thaw comes? Won't it eventually get washed somewhere? I read that in Sweden they use wetted sand. Admittedly it will still have to go somewhere when it thaws but we have a supply of sand in Britain we don't need to import expensive salt. Just a thought!

On Mondays I get the Daily Telegraph for the Sports Supplement as I was once advised it was one of the best. Useless today as sport has been so adversely affected by the weather except in South Africa where the England cricket team seems particularly adept at rearguard actions. Anyway I was forced as a result to read the paper more than is my usual wont. I was delighted to see the Donmar "Hamlet" has made £6 million on Broadway. I was also reminded that I was born in the winter of 1947 although my memories are very vague! I read the column by Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London. His topic was the roadworks constantly disrupting London life and costing Londoners about £1 billion per year. In the Thatcher era the utilities were given quite amazing powers to dig up the road; this was an attempt to help the new privatised utility companies. Unfortunately the number of companies and services able to use these powers now number 100. London is apparently pioneering a time limited permit system in order to speed up the 300,000 holes dug annually in London streets. Johnson's suggestion is lane rental so the companies are charged for the time spent digging up roads. Naturally the utility companies say this will add to their costs which will be passed on to the consumer. However Johnson goes on to say it might encourage new technology, the equivalent of keyhole surgery and angioplasties in road-excavation. He also suggests the round the clock working of Singapore and the plating over the holes as used in New York.

I was much heartened by hearing that my old school went back to work today. What is the point of being retired if everyone is staying at home? I am much uplifted by the tales of young people making every effort to get into work. I once was much driven by the protestant work ethic instilled into me by my grandmother in particular - I wonder what happened to it? Do I need a shovel or a spade?