Are you heading to the slopes for half term?

With half term coming up many families will jet off to ski resorts for fun packed holidays, and with the excellent snow conditions it’s bound to be a popular activity for the mid term break.

The Telegraph reported that half a metre of fresh snow is expected to fall in many resorts, across France, Austria, Switzerland and almost a metre in some US resorts which will make room for great skiing.

If you are more of a thrill seeker looking for a winter sport other than skiing then you may like to have a go at ice karting, similar to go-karting but with studded tyres. Alternatively you could try snowboarding or how about snowlerblading? Click here to have a look at some more adventurous activities, but make sure your travel insurance is in order before setting off on your trip.

Add comment February 12th, 2010

Travel Disruptions

Over the past few weeks the snow and freezing weather conditions has resulted in flight disruptions, which affected flight arrivals and caused delays to departures.

Flights from Gatwick, Southampton, Luton, Birmingham, Bristol and Exeter airports and passengers at Cardiff, Heathrow, Manchester and Stansted were all affected. The daily mail reported that some passengers were told to leave terminal five without their luggage due to flight delays, and it had been recommended that passengers contact the airline before going to the airport.

If you are planning on travelling make sure you are prepared and have adequate travel insurance, you never know when you might need it. Click here for the latest travel news.

Add comment January 14th, 2010

Don’t complain about the weather

Over the past couple of months the weather has changed constantly. We have had the snow storms, cold snaps with temperatures dipping to -6 or below and surprisingly warmer days. One thing that does stay constant is the moaning that we all make about it.

However, maybe we should be counting our blessings. An article in The Times reports that at this time back in 1809 ‘heavy rain froze into sheets of ice on the ground, followed by thick snowballs’. On the 24th of January several ships sunk due to a terrific gale. It goes on to explain how the storm brought great rain which melted the snow. As the snow was sitting on sheets of ice the water just ran off causing huge amounts of flooding making roads impassable and houses collapsing.

Over the next few days weather forecasters are predicting another cold snap will hit the UK with temperatures expected to fall to a possible -3 degrees so wrap up warm. Lets just hope that we don’t have a repeat of 1809!

Add comment January 29th, 2009

Spring forward and Fall back

Don’t forget to put your clocks back this Saturday 26th October for an extra hour in bed, if you’re lucky. The annual ritual of putting the clocks back has raised the question again as to exactly why we do this.

In Spring we put the clocks forward an hour in order to make better use of the daylight. It makes the mornings slightly darker but gives us more light at the end of the day which means that we can do more in the evenings. In the winter we change the clocks back again so that mornings get lighter earlier but the evenings get darker earlier.

Every year there is an appeal to not put the clocks back. One article I found on The BBC website goes back to 2003 where safety campaigners were requesting that the British Summertime is not changed. They believed that 450 deaths and serious injuries happen every year due to the clocks going back. This was put to the test between 1968 and 1971 with results suggesting that 2,500 deaths and serious injuries cound be reduced.

A study by University of Cambridge’s Centre of Technology Management considered the costs of Britain joining Central European Time (CET). According to The Times article this would mean that during the height of the summer it would remain light until 11pm and not get darker until 5pm even during midwinter.

The study suggests that changing to CET would reduce road accidents as there would be more daylight in the evening during rush hour and it would also reduce accidents involving children. Children spend longer on the roads after school and so the risk of them getting hurt is higher, more so if it is darker. It would also reduce electricity consumption due to people spending more of their waking hours in the daylight.

So there appears to be many reasons to keep our clocks at British Summertime. According to a poll for the Mayor of London, 60% of Londoners would prefer the clocks not to be put back in the winter. Especially during the current credit crunch people will find their household electricity bills increasing due to more lighting being required in the mornings.

I personally would prefer not to put the clocks back. It may mean that mornings are slightly darker but it gives us more daylight hours during the day, which means that we are able to do more.

What do you think?

Add comment October 22nd, 2008

Frosty the Stolen!

All these icy mornings make car journeys all the more hazardous and one of the extra things to allow time for before setting off is defrosting the windows. If feeling particularly sensitive to my fellow passengers, I might also warm the car engine up and get some warm air circulating around the car interior so that it’s a bit more pleasant inside.

There’s two things that I am guilty of that could lead to trouble however: the first is my habit of pouring boiling water over the windscreen as a quick way of defrosting it…As my car gets older and my free time gets less and less, I have come to a less than scientific conclusion - that there is not going to be any damage caused to the paintwork since at the point the hot water touches the frozen surface, the temperature of the water is immediately reduced and thus no harm done.

All was well until the other day when a passer-by called out - “hey - you shouldn’t be doing that”. Now, on the basis that a) I own both the car and kettle b) surely can’t be adding to global warming c) didn’t have the time or inclination to engage in conversation - I never did get to the bottom of why this was such a bad thing to do. Any clues, anyone? Will I really damage the paintwork?

The other potential cause of trouble is connected to heating the car up and leaving the car unattended with engine running. I tend not to actually do this but I do sometimes see cars left this way, and wonder how many actually get stolen by early-rising, opportunistic thieves? My understanding is that in such a scenario you wouldn’t be covered by your car insurance since your insurer would take a dim view of you leaving the car unattended with the keys in the ignition.

1 comment December 20th, 2007