snow!

earlier on this evening, i heard very strange noises coming from outside my window. it resembled the sound of someone spilling rice on a parquet floor, that pitter patter sound. but since rice is not a common staple food here, and all the floors are carpetted, the chances of that happening is close to zilch. when i looked out of my window, i thought it was raining (as it always does in london), but when i saw mini ice pellets on my window ledge, i realised it was hailing! yes it was the sound hailstones whacking the roof! good thing i wasn't outdoors, being whacked by hailstones is not fun.

but that lasted only a short while. after i had my dinner, in the middle of watching densha otoko (train main), i looked out of my window, again, for no apparent reason. this time, i saw white flakes drifting down from the sky. it was snowing! because it rarely snows in london, and also because it's barely the end of autumn, and most importantly because i've never seen snow before (never even been to snow city), i couldn't believe my eyes. so i went out of my hall to get a better look and indeed there were people (ang mohs) exclaiming that it was snowing. i even saw people running around in the snow. it was quite a fascinating sight and feeling to be surrounded by a sea of white flakes, and the exuberance of the people dancing in the snow was rather infectious. i hurried back to take my camera, and by the time i went out again, a whole bunch of people were outside having snowball fights already.

snow outside my hall

shitty shot but it was the best i could do

pity the chap behind me

for a swa-ku like me who has never seen snow before, this boring evening was turned into a memorable occasion. the excitement of people experiencing the first snow of the season (everyone asking "is it snowing?"), the sight of a million white petals floating down from the sky, the cold slushy floor, the feeling of being whacked by a snowball, it was unforgettable.

while there is nothing inherently wrong with snow, there is an issue with the circumstances in which snow is formed, which is the temperature. now the only problem is that i would have to walk in the freezing cold to catch my bus to stansted. austria here i come!