Joyless January??

To find much joy in a January such as this one has been difficult. The snow was a distraction, granted, and I was able to reshape my face into a smile on a number of occasions, especially when I heard the story of my mate Gary falling over. But the lack of sunshine has got to me now. I'm a creature of the sun. Not heat, just sun. A cold crisp morning for me anytime! But no, none of that in January. Just cloud and precipitation in various forms and temperatures. (Nothing worse that really cold rain!)

And so it was that I have been struggling to bring the joy to this blog, ironic given its title and primary purpose. That is until Friday morning, when to all intents and purposes I was done for. Knackered, pissed off and so very tired. A shit week at work for both me and him (although he had it worse really, what with working twelve hour days and that). It is fair to say that I'm not a morning person in winter time, and "he" will probably tell you that I've been particularly intolerant (and no doubt intolerable) of late.

And so it was in a dark mood that we headed towards the tube, Caledonian Road on the Picadilly line. I was on automatic, you know, aiming to simply put one foot in front of another in a semi-catatonic state until I got through the subterrainian hell that is the London underground at commuter time. We crossed the zebra crossing, and I was steeling myself for the squash and push of the carriages as I pulled my oyster card out of my pocket. That's when I noticed it for the first time. Swan Lake, being played gently over the tannoy. And there it was, a little bit of joy!

The Joy of Snow

And lo, snow did fall across London Town, and the workers did leave the office lest their trains should get stuck in the dusting!

The hysteria with which snow is greeted in the UK surprises me. In an office of 150 people we were down to five, the poor miserable five who could reasonably be expected to walk home and therefore had no justifiable reason to leave early. I was feeling somewhat disgruntled by this, jealous even. I silently hoped these people would get stuck on trains overnight and glowered at them as they wrapped their scarves around their necks while heading to the lifts.

That was until I heard one of them say, "Oh, perfect weather to build a snowman with the kids. Can't wait to see their faces." I had a word with myself then, and remembered my new mantra:

Bring Back the Joy!