Snow's No Longer So Specical

In the city of Vancouver, the chance of having a white Christmas is about one in ten. Blogging about the weather is not a hell of a lot more exciting than talking about it. However at least, it gives an opportunity to say something to neighbours on the elevator. Commenting on the weather can even be an ice-breaker with strangers. This is probably more the case in Canada than in places where the weather doesn't vary.

I grew up with memories of snow whereas Jay did not. I cannot remember the very first time I touched snow but Jay can. When we were working in Bahrain we went for a winter trip to Turkey in January of 1990. On that trip I returned to the States for three weeks while Jay stayed in Istanbul. On my way back, we spent an extra week and made use of several free air tickets to Ankara. This picture would have been the very first place Jay had seen snow on the ground.


His second close encounter with the white stuff was also in Turkey. It was a nice, cheap get-a-way from the Gulf. We went several more times from Dubai. The next trip took place in 1995. We traveled quite extensively in Turkey by taking public buses on that trip. I remember staying in a hotel in Bursa. It was really hot in the room as they made use of natural hot springs to heat the place. The picture above could have been taken on top of the mountain at the Uludağ National Park. We didn't ski but rode up on cable cars and walked around the peak.

Now snow is only special if it stays on the ground for about an hour. Any more than that and it loses its appeal!