People think it’s weird when I tell them I’m from New Zealand and have never seen it snow. It’s like people think New Zealand is freezing and it snows year round and we live in igloos or something, even though New Zealand is approximately the same distance from the Equator as Rome.
I had three chances to see snow when I was living in New Zealand:
- Once when I was five and it magically snowed in my backyard. I don’t remember.
- Once when my parents and sister drove up to the Rimutaka Ranges summit to go for a walk in the snow. I didn’t go. I think I had too much homework. My sister brought me back a snowball in a plastic bag, which stayed in the freezer for two months.
- The time I went skiing on Mt Ruapehu. The sky was blue the entire time I was there, it didn’t snow once, the temperature didn’t drop below about 2ºC, and the snow was icey and hard, not like real snow at all.
It’s been snowing a little bit on and off since I got back to Manchester, but never enough to make the ground white and never big snowy flakes. I was in Edinburgh last week for work and it snowed a lot. Big soft flakes. But sadly, I was on the train and only managed to fleetingly see snow on the beach as the train drove down the coastline. It was absolutely beautiful. However, this morning I was lucky enough to see real, proper snow, right here in Manchester. As I walked to work with my umbrella getting heavier and heavier, I listened to The Price of Milk soundtrack by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra and a little tear came out of my eye. What a pussy.
Ring ring, four years ago called. It wants its hat back.
Wheeee, snow!
There is nothing like it. If you stay a while you will learn to differentiate different kinds of European snow:
1. Good snow. That’s the kind you like. Mostly falls at night, in big, pretty flakes. Often associated with starry nights & romantic walks through sugar coated roads & parks that are all nice & silent.
2. Bad snow. Wet & sticky, sharp small flakes. Brings icy wind along, ruins your way to work. Won’t stay, but everything will be muddy & icky for days. Only falls on those days when you are responsible to clear the sidewalk. Like today. Argh.
Maybe it’s just me, but I think snow is fucking magical – nature’s miracle!
It could be because I lived in Texas for three years, and no snow before that either.
3. Magical snow. Rare. Might be found in the form of a single perfect giant crystal on the glove of someone you love.
Ok, you may go throw up now
You’re right, snow is a miracle. It can transform ugly and ordinary places into something pretty.
The way the 2nd to last sentence wrapped, I twice misread it as “a tear of Milk came out of my eye.”
Snow. Eh. I’m in Detroit, which is basically the North Pole with guns.
I had a friend who could squirt milk out of his tear ducts.
Ani. It snowed here in Houston on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. First time on record we had a white Christmas. Must have been because you left.