Happy New Year 2010!

A bit belated I wish you all a Happy New Year 2010!

Here in Leeds there was a "White Christmas". It had snowed before the holidays, it snowed before New Year, and yesterday a new snow dump brought at least 15 cm snow cover everywhere in and around Leeds.



As usual, road traffic collapses here in the UK when such snow conditions occur. There is usually not much snow here in winter, so when it comes, the road services are overwhelmed. One problem is that here in the UK a lot of salt is used to clear the roads from snow. They do not use snow ploughs but instead spray salt and sand grit. This is only effective when the snow cover is not more than a few cm. But with the current snow amount, I believe it would be better to use ploughs to move the snow to the side, before spraying salt on it. This is also for environmental reasons: salt damages the environment around the road ways. It also leads to increased corrosion of cars.

Driving on the M62 Motorway across the Pennines from Leeds to Manchester on 2.January 2010.

Happy New Year 2009!

The new year is already a few days old... I started the year off with a cold. On 1. January my voice was completely gone, probably an effect from the quite chilly weather. I had spent the christmas holidays with my family in Germany, but came back before the New Year.

Now I had to skip the first few days of work, due to slight temperature. I even went to the GP (for non-UK people: this is the General Practitioner, my "Hausarzt") who recommended me to get a good rest and avoid making other people sick.

But tomorrow, Thursday, I will go back to work. I had many plans for things to be done during those days off, but I was unfortunately unable to do them. Maybe I will find some time during the ntext months.

To all of you who read this blog: best wishes for a happy, healthy, and successful New Year 2009!