Despite the cold snap they’re predicting for next week, today was a lovely day here in Reading. As well as the weather, it was also the first weekend in over 3 months where Sara and I didn’t have a shed-load of things to be doing for work or otherwise, so we all headed in to town for a day of shopping, lunching and relaxing.

After a relaxing day, we’ve spent the evening in a similar fashion – cheese and biscuits for dinner (we had a big lunch), copious amounts of red wine and port, and catch-up episodes of Lost, Glee, Heroes and Desperate Housewives. Oh, and some chocolate. What a result!

Today’s photo is of something I saw very early in the day, at around half seven on my way to the M4. I don’t *actually* know what it is, all I know is it’s been erected on the massive building site next to Junction 11, where the junction is being extended at the moment. It piqued my interest – I wonder if they’re building a giant teepee, or perhaps a REALLY big easel for a massive painting?

This evening was a momentous evening in chez Elliss – it marked the first time that Sara and I have been out (without Robert) for well over a year. Thanks to Katy, who very kindly babysat for us, we went to see the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, featuring Emma Johnson on Clarinet – a favourite of Sara’s, who is a Clarinettist herself.

For the cultured amongst you (and I don’t count myself in that number!) they performed:

– “Incidental Music from A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, by Felix Mendelssohn
– Clarinet Concerto in A majo K/622, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
– Symfony No.8 in G major Op.88, by Antonin Dvorak

Rather than post yet *another* shot of the snow today (and believe me, I’ve taken LOADS!) I thought I’d choose a shot which represented our day much better. Namely, our trip to Toys R Us! Due to the aforementioned snow, it’s quite hard to get very far without coming a-cropper, so a trip to the Forbury retail park was about all we could muster – and after that we felt like we’d had a full day out! Robert was like the proverbial kid in a sweet shop, wandering round playing with every toy he could reach. We managed to bag some good bargains for his birthday in June, which is cool. Yes, our life really is this exciting : )

Unlike me, Sara isn’t lucky enough to be able to work from home when her office is open (since she’s a teacher!) so when Maiden Erlegh decided that all teachers were needed in school to teach poor old Year 11, she had to risk the roads and drive over to Earley. Since the car parks at the school were closed, she parked at my brother’s house and walked in – which caused a bit of a problem when she came to going home, as you can see. I had to get the bus over to Earley in my lunch hour to help dig the car out of the snow. What an adventure!

As the big freeze continues to grip the country, we didn’t venture too far out of the house today – for fear of slipping over on the ice rink that is our road. So this photo was taken from our garden, looking up at the icicles on our neighbour’s roof.

Interesting fact I learnt today – you know when you see a roof where the snow has all slipped off, much quicker than the other houses around it? That’s most likely due to bad insulation – heat escaping through the roof will melt the snow more quickly, causing the slippage!

As predicted by the red sky yesterday morning, last night saw snow covering much of the country, with Reading being especially well doused. Despite having to stay at work late, I managed to make my way down the M4 reasonably easily and by the time we awoke this morning there was a good 6 inches of snow covering our area.

Later in the afternoon we all went for a walk to the park down our road, which is where this photo of Sara and Robert was taken. There was some pretty impressive snowman-building going on, including one which was at least 7ft tall.