A snowy walk to work, and a long lost encounter

As predicted, residents of southern England, including Oxford were greeted with a covering of thick snow (nice), and the chaos and disruption that accompany such 'extreme events' as we seem to call them here. I had the pleasure of riding my bike over pristine snow up to Summertown early morning, and a snowball fight with Danny in Diamond Place carpark. I decided to walk to work and take some pictures, and here is a selection. More will be posted in my flickr account (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickhopwood).

I loved all the bikes lined up outside my flat with the snow on their frames and even the spokes, but the canal had to be the prettiest bit. There were quite a few people taking pictures and I guess that, like me, they considered snow a valid excuse for being late to work.

The reference to long lost encounters is about Ryan, Amie and Daviv Winningham coming to stay. I have a penfriend called Patrick who I have been writing to since I was 15, and who I visited in the USA when I was 16 and 18. Ryan is his brother, Amie Ryan's wife, and Dave their dad. It was cool to see them again - it had been 9 years since I'd last seen Dave and Ryan, and I think Ryan's hair was green (it isn't now thank god but apparently he had a mullet at one stage. ugh). We walked round Oxford, squeaked New College Mound, popped into G&Ds and had a pint in the Bear. All very nice. Then beer and curry (though I got the impression they weren't so used to drinking as we Brits) at the Bombay followed by ice cream and FIFA 06 at the flat.

Amusingly I learned from Ryan that after Patrick and I went on our road trip to Chicago in 1998, Patrick's cholesterol went through the roof. Perhaps something to do with us sampling every type of fast food chain at the roadside services between Detroit and Wisconsin Dells?

I don't have any digital pictures of them, but Ryan and Dave pretty much look like you'd expect of Americans, except neither are particularly fat. Dave wears ski cap from Montana, camera round neck, moustache, leather jacket, T-shirt; Ryan models a goatee, hoodie with reference to a summer camp somewhere, tracksuite trousers. Both enjoy white socks.