Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
in Aaad-dleee-styne.
Happy New Year Addlestonians! What a turbulent
beginning to 2013 it's turned out to be in these parts. I speculated before
Christmas that the people of Addlestone might witness some snow yet, however
sadly this wasn't to be the case during December. In fact, the climate we
experienced remained largely temperate throughout the end of the year; a far
cry from what Attel, our original Addlestonian friend would have experienced
900 years ago as he waded through the frosty valley carrying a spear in one
hand and a drinking-horn of supermarket value mead in the other. Although,
that's no consolation for the proportion of Addlestonians who were repeatedly
affected by power cuts from 22nd December, leaving them with no heating at all
and causing chicken kormas to stand cold and motionless in microwaves all over
town. Of course, it wasn't all plain
sailing (or, should I say, skating) outside either, with temperatures dipping
to the unrelenting lows of -4°C, giving rise to some precarious driving conditions.
With the New Year came a bout of exciting weather
when, from 17th January, Addlestonians were hit by flurries of snow with
snowflakes the size of cornflakes, leading to the closure of schools and
paralysing our local public transport. The disruption began with a unique
variety of snow - a silent, invisible kind specific to Addlestone that led to
the outright cancellation of rail services through Addlestone the day before
any snowfall could be seen with the naked eye. Such is the imperceptible nature
of Addlesnow.
Needless to say, unlike the snow, reactions came in
thick and fast on Twitter:
"So no trains for the people of #chertsey and #addlestone then!"
"I might understand a reduced service but no service at all even before the snow has arrived seems a little extreme"
"How can addlestone station already of cancelled their trains tomorrow and not one drop of snow?"
"Are you joking there isn't even snow yes pt and they canceled addlestone trains all ready omfg HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHHAHAHAHAHA"
Courtesy of @MilesPerLitre |
"Err my car's not iced up or anything. Yet no trains from #addlestone??!! What a joke"
"No trains running from addlestone, looks like I can't get in for my exam, brilliant""Update on my week of unluckiness: stuck in addlestone with no trains running to Guildford""Emergency timetable has been extended until tomorrow so no trains for Chertsey/Addlestone on Saturday either #surreysnow""Looks like taxi into and home from work again today. No 51 bus and no trains again. Why is #Addlestone being singled out?""S***. No @SW_Trains from Addlestone tomorrow. How the feck am I supposed to get to work? Looks like a long walk to weybridge tomorrow"
There was one train that paid us forlorn
Addlestonians a visit, chuffing past in all its glory not just through a snow storm, but at the precise scheduled time of 13:29 as pointed
out by @CoxeyLoxey:
"Due at 1329hrs....went through Addlestone at 1329hrs...only train today & tomorrow @ClanLine28 pic.twitter.com/ffDUDxXu"
Seize this chance to re-live that
majestic moment which was filmed and posted by @BritishRailTV:
Forced to abandon work and school, some
Addlestonians took the chance to capture the action and get creative:
Courtesy of @garyshield73 |
Courtesy of @chrissiespics |
Courtesy of @SurreyAd |
Thanks to a few unlawful Addlestonians it was business as usual for the Police who were robbed of all chance to frolic in the snow, but did get to smash a door in:
Courtesy of @rogernield2703 |
Courtesy of @SurreyPolice |
In other news, Addlestone's very own Domino's Pizza opened at 144A Station Road (@AtownDominos), taking pride of place opposite Dominic's Pizza and gathering a loyal customer base within days:
"Me and the fam just destroyed several dominos pizzas. Addlestone dominos is so good. (Maybe better than Weybridge?!)"
An Addlestonian poll revealed a relative lack of support for Domino's, what would become the town's fourth pizza supplier, with 31% for and 68% against
(out of an admittedly small sample of 16 people), however we Addlestonians, the
forgiving people we are, were willing to put our differences aside and embrace
the newcomer with open arms, and mouths. That gruelling one-and-a-half mile journey to the next outlet in Weybridge is no longer a trip we need to make, although I can't help thinking the biggest sigh of relief will be coming from the Weybridge delivery drivers.
In January we also had to bid a sad farewell
to the short-lived Nobby's Nibbles only four months after saying hello (that is, those of us who noticed it was there in the first place). All please welcome Luigi's Sandwich & Coffee now
occupying the same building on 212 Station Road, east of the station.
What else has been going down in the hood in
January 2013:
And lastly, a look at what rocked the
Addlestone of a decade ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment