baltic!

There are three inches of snow on the ground and people are talking about the coldest winter in decades and cancelling bookings because of the treacherous traffic conditions.
I disagree with most people in Ardfern though, thinking that snow is absolutely lovely and how do you mean you can't drive when it's snowing..? :P
I once heard a story from an Estonian truck driver about a heavy snowfall in France; all the cars were piling up in every available car park to the point where other drivers, tired from their own international trips and deeply discouraged by the snow, couldn't fit in.. so the police pitched up and quite quickly selected out all the Scandinavian and Baltic drivers and told them to hit the road; claiming that they're used to tough conditions!



Scottish people have a funny expression to describe cold weather - they would come in from the front door of the pub on a "cold" winter night, delivering a series of shivers, rubbing hands against each other, jamming up the fireplace and saying "uuhh, it's baltic!"
Now Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) do experience occasional freezing weeks during their winters (a few days of minus thirties celsius every winter), but compared to Scottish weather, so are the other seasons more extreme; more hot in the summer, more cold in the winter; oh perhaps not more rainy in the autumn, but anyway using the word "siberian" or "laplandic" would make much more sense... :P

One of our frequent pub-visitors, Robin (who has something to say about everything) suggested that the word "baltic" is not so much to describe the weather conditions in Baltic states as to say something about their personalities.. John, a superbly intelligent local who has an amazing ability to remain insightful and interesting even after fifteen pints of Guinness, thought that since Scottish people love their drink so much, it would be difficult for them to pronounce "Siberian" or "Laplandic" or even "Arctic" throughout most of the day, so they settle with using a slightly less accurate alternative..



Anyway our few weeks of baltic-like weather have just been lovely, looking forward to a white Christmas..