Big freeze hits personal plans

HEAVY snow and weeks of freezing weather have paralysed Britain and put all sorts of best laid plans to waste, including my own.

Newcastle United's trip to Reading has been postponed along with matches at Preston, Sheffield Wednesday and Watford in The Championship.

Only a handful of lower league games and matches in Scotland remain on at the moment.

The cold snap could not have come at a more inopportune time for me from a football perspective as I had intended to go to the match at the Madejski Stadium.

It was going to be my first away trip following the Toon since a Kevin Keegan-led team surrendered meekly to a 3-0 defeat against Liverpool in March 2008.

But the postponement now means the match is likely to be moved to midweek, making it much less likely that I will be able to attend.

At least the decision was understandable, and indeed expected, given that ongoing reports from Berkshire have suggested even the main roads in the area are at times impassable.

The early call also ensured that there are not hundreds of wasted car journeys as up to 4,000 Newcastle fans had expected to pack out the away end.

Unfortunately, I had already booked train tickets and so I still intend to use them and visit a friend in the area... as long as I can get there tomorrow.

My continued use of public transport comes as a direct result of still not yet being able to drive after several practical test failures in the second half of 2009.

The desire to pass has made my New Year Resolution for 2010 easy enough.

But having seen experienced drivers struggle in the conditions, and with heavy snow showers on Tyneside expected to last until the middle of next week, I have chosen to delay my next attempt until the end of the month.

This has, of course, made me reliant on the service provided by Go North East buses - and I must take this opportunity to give the company some rare praise.

Go North East has done exactly what you want from a transport company in this weather, though its operations have not been helped by the councils inexplicably running short of grit.

Bus drivers have shown courage and endeavour in providing as many services as close to timetable as possible.

Best of all, information on route changes, delays and cancellations has been regularly updated on the company's Facebook page since the snow started to fall.

In Tyneside, that was way back on 16th December, and while the weather is not quite unprecedented, this amount of snow has not been seen in Britain for 30 years.

At its deepest in Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands, 44cm (17.3in) has fallen. Temperatures as low as -20 degrees Celsius have been recorded.

There have been reports of panic buying in supermarkets and fears of gas shortages. The weight of ice has pulled down power lines, cutting off electricity to thousands of homes.

Tragically, the freezing conditions and hazardous state of the roads have killed at least 22 people across the country.

It puts my disappointment over the postponed football into perspective.