gridlock!

I spent two days trying to recover from Monday's adventure! We have arranged to meet up with Jolanda, Joost and Skye to go for a nice winter walk in Epping Forest. We left home on Monday morning, the journey to Epping Forest was rather smooth, no traffic and certainly no hold up at all.

Epping Forest was very beautiful, not like the one we used to remember, muddy and wet! We ended up walking for three hours and didn't get lost! WooHoo! Thanks for Joost, he cycles a lot in Epping Forest so we all depend on him to guide us around the beautiful forest. The shelties certainly enjoyed their snowy walk. The snow on the groud was still very thick, so after three hours walk, they still look fairly clean.

Skye loves to chase Samber, and it was funny to watch them played. Samber is not a gentle girl when she plays, she likes to play rough. Now, Skye has grown up, it is ok for her to play rough with her. Skye was very active and agile, following her mama and daddy and uncles around the forest. I was amazed that she didn't show any sign of slowing down, she was running, jumping over the logs ... chasing the dogs ...

a nice family photo

and a gorgeous puppy

I was a bit disappointed with the photos I took at Epping Forest, the lighthing wasn't good for some action shots, most of the photos turned out blur and dark. I tried my best to edit them but they are still not what I was hoping for. Above are a series of photos of Skye chasing her mama.

at least I can take a good still photo ... handsome Sizzle

... and golden Seagull

After the walk, we went over to Jolanda & Joost's house at Woodford Green for a meal. Thank you very much to Joost for cooking us a wonderful meal, Colin and I were really enjoying the good food and luckily we stuff ourselves with the yummy food as the rest of the day was a disaster!

As we were enjoying our meal, I looked out through the window, I saw a lot of big flakes falling down from sky, both Colin and Joost reassured me that is just sleet but after half an hour later, they think the sleet has now become heavy snow! I couldn't relax myself anymore, I know it is rude to leave straight after the meal but I can't think of how I am going to drive home! I started to panic! There were at least 1" of snow on the ground!

We gave the dog a quick toilet trip before we go, the dogs were all covered in snow flakes! I love snow and I wish we were around home and walking the dogs in Mitcham Common instead of East London!

We left Jolanda & Joost's place at 16:45, I can only drive 5mph. If I have a choice, I would not want to drive at all. I have been driving 5mph for miles and miles. The snow was very heavy and I have to pay full attention to the road. The roads were snowy and icy, the car got skidded a few times but I managed to control it everytime it skidded. I was very scared but have to be braved. As soon as I got onto A12, I managed to speed up a bit, 20/25mph but not for long. Just before the Blackwall Tunnel, we were totally stuck in the traffic. The traffic wasn't moving for more than 30 minutes. Colin suggested we pulled over somewhere and luckily we spotted a McDonald's from a distance, we came off from the roundabout and carefully roll the car over to the McDonald's carpark. I was quite relief when we got to the icy McDonald's carpark, well at least I know I won't be driving through the icy road. The skidded condition really frightened me.

We stopped at McDonald's for an hour, the dogs were stressed, they don't understand what was going on and that well pass their dinner time. I normally carry dog treats and some dry food in the car but I recently clear them all out! Doh! Why everytime when you need something, you never seems to get it?

I spoke my brother-in-law Russell when we were at McDonald's carpark, he suggested we leave as early as we can as all the roads are busy and will become icy when the temperature drop, so we left the carpark after talking to him. We drove through Central London, the journey wasn't too bad, we sailed through quite easily until we hit Brixton. We have another deadlock again! We were totally stuck once again in Brixton, the traffic hardly move, at one point, we only moved ONE mile in an hour! I remembered we got to Brixton at about 9pm, at about 10:30pm, we were still in Brixton!

We tried to do a bit of short cut but it wasn't a good idea, mostly the side roads were very icy, so more skidding! Also, Londoners are very bad temper. We were stuck in the traffic, everyone is stressed and frustrated. We all want to get home as soon as we can. While we were stuck in the gridlock, I saw so many drivers lost their temper and nearly got into fight with other drivers! I have to admit I am short temper too but luckily I was chilled all the way home. I don't know why, maybe the snow and maybe the roads need my attention, I was totally concentrate on the road and didn't lost any of my temper.

From Brixton to Streatham was another 1.5 hours (3 miles!), then I found another short cut to take us home. Phew! I was so glad to be home again!! We were in the car for 7 hours! At this rate, we probably in Scotland already!!!

I struggled to get out from the car, my knees were stiff and sore! It took me two days to recover and I do not want to drive at all!!!