Hi friends,

Today marks the day that our winter adventure comes to an end. For those of you who are not from Ireland or UK, you probably will laugh at this, but for us, it was no joking matter.

The story should probably start 4 years ago when Ireland got an unprecedented amount of snow and came to a complete standstill. There was no warning and so people were in complete shock and completely unprepared for shops and schools being closed.

Foward to present time and government did everything in their power to deliver a message that a lot of snow is coming together with a storm and so all of us should be prepared.

Normally, even if Ireland gets a bit of snow it melts the moment it touches the ground or sticks for about an hour or two. This time around as a result of a collision of warm storm Emma coming from the direction of Portugal and Beast from the East coming from the Arctic a lot of snow got dumped onto Ireland and UK.

On Tuesday, the government started issuing warnings for the upcoming days, with that in mind we also started doing preparations, such as fueling the cars, picking up extra milk and bread, I took extra work home and arranged for someone to finish a couple of experiments in case I couldn’t make it to work on Wednesday. Everyone thought it was an over-exaggeration and few memes appeared making fun of people stocking up on bread and milk.

And few articles came out showing shady dealing of bread of the streets ( see here );P

By the time I came to my childminders to pick up my kids, you could see the two fronts surrounding our area. I quickly got kids ready, bundled them up into our car and drove home, which is around 15-minute drive from our house.

On the way there the snow started… My car skidded a d couple of times and I nearly crashed into another car, as my breaks slid on freshly compacted snow… It was terrifying… We all slowed down to a crawl and somehow managed to get home safely. I know in some countries come winter people change their summer tires for winter ones. In Ireland, there is no such thing. You would have to import them if you wanted some and for a couple of days of winter, it is just not worth it. So after that drive, I decided that if it snowed any more I would stay at home.

Next morning, Ireland was beautiful in white. There was no way I was even going to attempt to drive in, and even though my work-place was still open, I let my boss know that I was working from home and after doing some work enjoyed the snow with Alexei, building a snowman, having a snowball fight and making snow angels. By Wednesday afternoon, a Red weather alert was issued and we were told to be indoors at home by four o’clock. The wind started getting stronger, the blizzard came and all we could do was stay at home and enjoy each others company.

My hubby was off work on Thursday and Friday, but on Thursday was out with civil defense, driving and picking up nurses to and from hospital to their homes. Let’s just say that even though it was very rewarded I was worried about him every hour that passed.

I, on the other hand, had loads of fun with kids and spent time playing games, cleaning house and baking cookies with Alexei.

The stores were meant to open on Friday and we ventured out as we started running low on baby formula (oops.. we thought we had an extra jar stored away). However, all that was open were two petrol stations and centra, none of which sold formula. So in the end, my hubby drove to his mum as she had a spare jar in her house for when Matthew visits. He said that drive back was terrifying as the roads were not cleared and he skidded a couple of times and nearly ended up in a ditch.

Then on Friday evening, we started hearing that in Tallaght, Dublin people are ransacking Lidl and that they set it on fire and are destroying other shops in the area. All I could think was in other countries this madness happens from unfair treatment of people, while in Ireland people stay silent, but apparently, snow makes them crazy and act out.

My hubby had to drive to work next morning (Saturday), and instead of taking an hour to get there it took him two and a half hours.  However, as he works in the ambulance control, there was no other option and he had to get there.

I, on the other hand, cleared our path from snow and went to a shop as it was now open. You could see the panic in peoples faces, everyone was stocking up in a somber mood and staff did not have enough time to put anything out before it was removed from the shelves. The only bread that was actually delivered was Pat the baker and store freshly baked the other. Let’s just say it did not last long on the shelves. I, on the other hand, got the formula for Matthew and was content with anything that I got:)

Today, the snow is melting and everything is getting back to normal. So I can safely say that we have survived The Beast from the East and had loads of fun while doing that:)

Hope you all had a great week everyone:)

Alexei loving the snow:) (Picture taken by and property of Babybluerascals)