As the snow started to gently fall in the early evening on Boxing Day there were squeals of delight from the two children who had never seen it before.

They and a few of the adults also not used to the wonders of the white stuff donned hats and coats and ran out to take pictures.

Being a Derbyshire lad and brought up seeing more of the stuff than I care to remember I wandered out in my t-shirt to take a picture for my Facebook friends back in Florida to see.

The truth is, I’m a wuss.

There are lizards better equipped to deal with snow and icy conditions than I am.

Even in Orlando I have been known to whine about it not being warm enough, so the quick photo was followed up by an hour hugging a warm radiator and drinking a rather fine Port.

The snow fell and fell.

And then it fell some more and we soon realized that getting from my sisters house back to our base over the Derbyshire hills was impossible for the time being.

Even though it snows every fucking year in Britain, we still seem surprised by this strange white powder descending from the heavens and thus the country grinds to a halt with gritting trucks and snow plows rarer than a Bigfoot sighting.

For the next few days the snow hung around like a Great Aunt who’s forgotten that Christmas finished a few days ago and it was time to go home and stop emptying the drinks cabinet.

By New Years Eve things were warming up slightly, but the freezing fog and sleet on top of patches of ice still made driving fairly treacherous.

Not to worry though because we didn’t have to drive and had a fantastic evening with family and friends and welcomed in 2015 with some rather nice bubbly courtesy of my in-laws.

Us Brits Are Weird

There’s a strange tradition in the UK to go walking on New Years Day.

People who would normally rather shove a duck-billed platypus up their arse sideways than walk to the end of their own driveway turn all out-doorsy for a day.

They don multiple layers of clothing, hats, gloves and boots and set off walking with the kind of grim determination that would have made Captain Lawrence Oats proud.

I’m not sure if this insanity started off as a way to kill a hangover, or whether some people who actually like walking cunningly convinced drunken people on New Years Eve to agree to this folly the following morning.

Certainly a rather nice single malt had me thinking it was a wonderful idea at 1.00am.

It didn’t seem too great the following morning when although the air temperature had warmed up a degree or two, a wicked wind meant it felt even colder.

I pleaded insanity, but my wife wasn’t having it.

So I reluctantly hauled myself out of bed and 11 of us set off in two cars to take a well known walk along an abandoned train track into Bakewell, the town of my birth.

When we arrived at the start of the walk we all piled out of the cars and I took the cunning decision to wear two coats.

I may have looked like a rather bald and old Paddington Bear, but I figured it was better than death through hypothermia.

I Could Be Knighted

I was with Helen at the front of the group striding confidently forward convinced that the Queen would be bestowing some honor on me for showing such a gutsy attitude.

Of course, not being a fan of the Royal Family would have meant I’d have had to politely decline Her Majesty’s kind gesture, but the thought was nice.

There were patches of ice everywhere and even though it was muddy we’d chosen to walk down the grass verge to avoid slipping on one of them.

We hadn’t gone more than 200 yards when I looked round wondering where the hell everybody else was.

No more than 50 yards from the start of the walk was somebody lying on the ground. Immediately Helen said, ‘that’s mum!’ and started to run back.

There were a group of people around Kate, one of whom was my wife’s best friend who is a doctor.

As I got there she tried to get up, but obviously couldn’t and it was obvious she wasn’t going any further.

A group formed with well meaning people offering advice not knowing she was already being attended to by a doctor and a nurse, but it was decided an ambulance was needed.

As we waited for the paramedics to arrived we concentrated on keeping her as immobile as possible and also awake as she was drifting in and out of consciousness.

The paramedics arrived shortly after and treated her for shock and gave her intravenous pain killers, but decided she needed to be taken to the local trauma center in Sheffield.

Unfortunately the track wasn’t accessible by a motor vehicle so they called for a helicopter.

Even the Choppy Lopter (as my wife honestly calls them) had trouble landing close by and needed an adjacent field.

Then the team had to cut their way through some barbed wire, climb over a wall and wade through a ditch to get to Kate.

Shortly after she was airlifted away in obvious discomfort and leaving behind a lot of worried family members.

The great news is she’s fine and out of hospital, but it made me think.

Apparently she landed on her hip and then her side before her head hit the ground. As such, most of the damage was done to her hip and ribs, but holy shit it could have been so different.

We’d had the most wonderful time back in the UK and it could have ended in the worst way possible with just a bit more bad luck.

People do die in such ‘mundane’ ways every day of the year.

When Is The Right Time In Life?

There’s a fake Buddha quote doing the rounds on Pinterest that says, ‘The trouble is, you think you have more time’.

Even though The Buddha never said it, the message is still highly valid.

We all think we have more time.

And I’m not just talking about time to do the things we’ve always wanted to do.

Yes, without doubt they are important.

There’s never a perfect time to start your own business, write your book, take up meditation (click the link for a free ebook or audio book to do that),  go traveling or do that online course.

So don’t look for it, just commit!

Having said that, there is always a perfect time to tell those closest to you that you love and appreciate them, and that time is now and every day until you no longer have the opportunity.

Because guess what?

One day, you won’t.

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a very happy 2015.

Helicopter Image courtesy of N Duriez