Winter Lessons from #SnowProblems

It’s snowing and this is exactly how I wanted to embrace Swedish winter  – a White Winter Wonderland. It is not the first time I’d seen snow but when it first snowed over the weekend, I was all hyped up.  I sat by my candle-lit window, watching snowflakes fall while sipping my hot chocolate and doing nothing but enjoying the view.

The paradise thought quickly diminished as the list of #SnowProblems began to unfold.

• My bike lock was FROZEN. I tried to fix it but totally fruitless. So I gave up and had no choice but to walk instead.
• After a few steps, I realized my shoes weren’t meant for the ICY path. With the overnight snow, my morning brain didn’t register the need to put on winter shoes. As it was very slippery, I walked extremely SLOW even though I was running late, most frustrating thing ever. Even grannies walked faster than me, I’m ashamed.
• Halfway through, my ears began to hurt a lot. Morning brain didn’t register the need to wear hat. It was -10°C, a 12°C dipped from yesterday, what on earth?!
• Ah, almost made it. At the zebra crossing, rows of cars stopped. My heart pounded heavily as I was tried to walk ‘effortlessly’. This was absolutely hard work, walking on ice with heels, super bad idea.
• Arrived LATE but to my surprise, others were not around yet, thanks to the snow. One of my colleagues couldn’t get to his bike because his garage door was FROZEN. He then ran for the bus in order to catch the train. Because of the snowy road, the bus took another longer route which he had to run even faster to catch to the train and he fell. On the bright side, he’s fine and managed to catch the train just in time and avoid an hour’s wait.

Prior to this, I had never cycled in an icy/snowy situation as I used to take the train/bus to school. Took 2 days for the lock to defrost and some courage to cycle in icy situation. Snow can be beautifully annoying and a disrupter of daily routine.

To ‘survive’, my defense mechanism fights back with the following lessons (proven).

#1     Wake up early, kick-start the day earlier and leave house EARLY

#2     A ‘Plan B’ for disrupted routine especially when its comes to transport

#3     Winter shoes, an essential

#4     Packed winter essentials the night before.  Gloves, hat, scarf ..

#5     Most importantly, master the Art of Walking on ICE, penguin-style

Image from Tablet Infographics.