Okay, it really is a bit chilly out there - and I've been to South Georgia, as you might have noticed from the rather fetching orange total immersion suit I model with, I think, some style on my Facebook page.
As the weather brings the UK to a halt and businesses count the cost of lost time, travel chaos and staff absences, can I dare to look on the bright side? Some businesses, other than winter sports shops, road gritters and orange total immersion suit manufacturers positively love a good dollop of the white stuff.
Take local radio stations. They get loads of extra listeners when the weather's bad as commuters tune in for local travel news (proper local travel news: "there's a silver Vauxhall Vectra with a flat battery outside 17 Sycamore Drive in Little Bletherington and it's causing a tailback all the way to number 39, where Pete and Jackie are trying to get little Billy to nursery...") and their children listen, praying for news that their school is closed because the boiler's blown up and Mrs Williams from Year 4 can't get in because her car's stuck in the tailback on Sycamore Drive.
My local station is Mix 96, covering Aylesbury Vale - a shining example of really good local radio for a relatively small area (about 120,000 people in its 'TSA', if memory serves). It knows and involves its audience, runs popular competitions alongside the usual array of splendidly local ads with wonderfully kitsch jingles for garden centres and garages and plays a decent selection of melodic tunes for a wide-ish demographic, with the ubiquitous Take That alongside Abba, The Script and Boston on the breakfast show this morning. ("That's the one from the rollercoaster advert, isn't it Dad?" "Yes, but let me tell you about the pioneering technical 'layering' approach of guitarist Tom Scholz. Hey, come back and pay attention while I'm talking! I'm your father and you should respect my knowledge of useless musical trivia! I said come back!!!)
All in all, a good local listen, although I could have done without mein host relaying some of his listeners' children's rather disturbing culinary habits while I was tucking in to my cornflakes and I've never been spurred on to take extra care while driving by DJs who tell me to "take it easy out there". (No, I'm going out to do some extra high-speed, Professionals-style, handbrake turns on the M25 while the conditions are right!)
They even roasted that old 80s chestnut, Life In A Northern Town by Dream Academy, on their open fire ("from Aylesbury Fireplaces, where our winter deals are hot!"). Not a Christmas song per se, but it has the right seasonal feel - a bit like East 17's Stay Another Day. (Slightly younger readers/listeners might know it better from its sampling by Dario G on their 1997 hit, Sunchyme. Then again, they might not.) Dream Academy's Nick Laird-Clowes enlisted the production help of Pink Floyd's David Gilmour on the original and later co-wrote a couple of tracks on Floyd's Division Bell album, thus ensuring a nice Christmas cheque from Santa each year.
See, it's good for business, a bit of snow.
