A white Chinese New Year - many firsts!

Note: My apologies for this overdue update of the London snow fall. It had been a busy week and I just managed to resize my photos.

While I enjoyed a white Easter last year, this year's experience of winter was not a just a white Chinese New Year but a VERY VERY white Chinese New Year

It all started after I had attended my church's evening service which ended at about 8pm, and when my friends and I came out from church, we were all greeted by beautiful white snow gently falling from the sky. As we left church to make our way to a restaurant to have dinner, we had a mini snowball fight all the way as we walked. Ah... my very first snowball fight

After dinner ended about 10.30pm, I made my way to the underground station but had to take a different route using the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) instead of the London Underground because Jubilee line, which is my usual train line, was not working during the weekend. Thinking I was save from the snow since it had stopped snowing in Central London, what usually took me 45 minutes to get home became one hour and 45 mins! And I did not reach home till 12.15am (Monday morning)! Why? All because of the snow! Since most of the the DLR stations are in the open, I ended up being stuck in the DLR train at Limehouse station for nearly half an hour and then at Westferry station for another 10 minutes because the tracks were covered in snow and track points were not working.

Finally, an announcement came saying that the train could not go any further than Westferry station and so I had to get off, and walked to the nearest bus stop. However, after five minutes, it looked like no buses were coming, and I decided to follow the crowd and walked home. The good thing was it was only a 10-15 minutes walk home. Even so, by the time I got home, my shoes were soaked and my toes were freezing! An interesting experience for my first walk in the snow. And here are some photos during my walk back.

From left: My view from inside the train - the Limehouse DLR station all covered in white.; a close-up of a 'clean' and white train track.

From left: Commuters trying to contact family or friend to inform them of their situation and think of other means of transport; the view from Westferry DLR station as I walked down the stairs.

From left: 'White' walk home: the ground all covered in snow; the weather was so cold that my footprints turned into ice within second!

From left: The snow mobile for the 21st century?; A night winter view from my room window.

The next morning, I was greeted with more snow and I felt like I was in winter wonderland when I looked out my room window. It was so white, so clean and so beautiful! And with all this snow, how could I let it pass without having made a snow angel? So, I braved the cold and made my very first snow angel. I will let the photos tell the story.

From left: A 'white' greeting when I woke up; my back garden turned into winter wonderland!

From left: Strong winds toppled the rubbish bin and heavy snow fall turned it into a 'snow bin'; trying to walk in four inches of snow.

From left: Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow; playing with snow.

From left: My attempt at making a giant snow ball; is it a bird? is it a butterfly? No! It's a snow angel.

From left: Snow angel print: The snow angel has awakened; a snow angel's view.

This winter has been a many firsts for me - first snow ball fight, first experience walking in the snow and first snow angel made - and it will be a winter I shall never forget!