It's a bit snowy

As Britain continues on it's valiant attempt to "one-up" the Antarctic my PC has similarly remained frozen. Most disappointing as I've had a number of photo's on my camera since the weekend. As follows.........

"Gotcha!" cries the devil with the brown eyes as his snowball makes contact with Mummy's leg. Well, snowball is a bit of a misnomer as he hasn't quite perfected compacting and balling the snow. Instead he tosses handfuls of loosely bound snowflakes at whatever body part is eye level with him. Naturally we've learnt not to kneel down outdoors under any circumstance.

There's those demon eyes again, readying himself for a "Dad attack"

The first two pictures featured were taken on Saturday, while the above was captured on Sunday as Luca and I attempted to escape the icy confines of Inverurie. We've pretty much been snowed in since Hogmanay so the (marginal) improvement on local roads on Sunday was gleefully embraced. With this we quickly loaded ourselves into my car and took off toward Aberdeen to exchange some Christmas gifts for those in sizes that don't cut off your circulation. Once complete - along with the additional purchase of a new dog coat for Sima (surely destined not to last more than a week on our sharp toothed and flexible headed pup) - we detoured into Bucksburn to try out their swimming pool.

And here we are in the pools changing room. We'd originally intended to pay our usual pilgrimage to Inverurie pool, but with burst pipes causing it's closure we were forced to seek this alternative. Luca, as with most things, seemed exceedingly pleased to be exploring another new environment.

Indeed, his was a smile that simply never ended.

He had a great time again, with his confidence in the water growing further. His favourite part was when he did the front crawl whilst laid across my back - as I swam fully underwater! "Daddy's heads very wet" he giggled as I came up gasping for air each time.

The last two pictures were taken after we'd come out the pool, with Luca a little unimpressed with the end of his swimming time even though over an hour had passed. Notice the Damian-esque look in his eyes here?

Of course, his moods rarely last more than a few seconds.

Since the weekends finish, and our return to work after the New Year holiday, things have quietened down to a steady daily routine of:-

1. Take dogs out for morning walk whilst continually falling over in snow drifts (Daddy)

2. Attempt to rise a iron willed toddler from his cozy and warm bed to face freezing cold mornings and nursery (Mummy)

3. Drive to work on whichever side of the road the ice decides to take you (Daddy)

4. Walk a gurning toddler through 2ft pavement snow, all the while avoiding random (albeit poorly packed) snowballs (Mummy)

5. Work for too many hours (Mummy and Daddy)

6. Repeat 3 and 4, just in reverse

7. Get Luca to bed sharp, then quickly regret the absence of the human hot water bottle as we shiver on the sofa (Mummy and Daddy)

Thankfully Sima has proved herself an adequate, albeit rather minuscule, hot water bottle alternative.

With the week - most gratefully - nearing its end, our weary bodies are looking forward to the weekend. Not too much rest for the wicked however, as I'll be going to Glasgow to watch the mighty Partick Thistle tackle Dundee Utd in the Scottish Cup while Carole stays at home to reacquaint herself with the Devil child we spawned three years ago.

Luca's been difficult of late - no surprise to anyone even remotely au fait with his indomitable will - and I think Caroles looking forward to having the opportunity to re-ingratiate herself with Shorty.

As you can probably determine from my blog history, Carole takes care of Luca most weekdays, while I take over at weekends. It's a system that works well (albeit one that needs a little oiling in order to allow us to spend more time together as a family) but is flawed insofar as it colours Luca's perception of each of us.

Carole's seen more as the authoritarian due to time constraints (getting him ready early in the mornings, teaching him basic skills such as dressing himself, getting healthy food in him, etc) while I'm seen more as a playpal with weekends affording a greater degree of flexibility, time and fun activities.

Hopefully Saturday can be a start in addressing this.

What else? Plenty. But it's 11.05pm now and another day of running an understaffed company as my boss (and many others) cower at home in fear of the snow looms only a few hours sleep away. I know we're all a little inconvenienced by the endless snow and freezing temperatures - but really, this is Scotland. As Jocks we get sunburnt when the temperature hits 10 degree's:-surely the snow and ice is closer to what we're designed to tolerate?

**Useless fact of the day - The winter of 1962–1963 (also known as The Big Freeze of 1963) was the coldest winter on record in the United Kingdom. Temperatures plummeted and lakes and rivers began to freeze over. In the Central England Temperature (CET) record, extending back to 1659, only the winter (defined as the months of December, January and February) of 1683–84 has been significantly colder**