Cold weather ingenuity

Londoners are an intrepid bunch. Watch the next post for more pics of the Royal Park, where yesterday was very festive (as you can likely tell from the number of people in this photo).

There were some cross country skiers. I saw wooden sleds and toboggans that I KNOW were fifty or sixty years old, stored in attics and basements just for this kind of opportunity. Some kids had the standard plastic sleds and saucers (given to them by a malevolent Santa, seeing as how little snow London usually gets?)

But even more interesting than the antique sliding equipment and much more interesting than the run of the mill new stuff, was the sheer ingenuity of Londoners as they fashioned their own modern versions to slide down hills. Inventions I saw included:

• A plastic laundry basket, various plastic storage bins (bottoms, but especially lids!)
• Bread flats that bakers normally load up for other kinds of delivery
• Cardboard (boxes and flats)
• An inflatable (double or queen) bed
• Beach floats in various configurations
• Doggie pooper scoopers. Don't go ewwww--they looked new. They are a smallish square scoop, kind of like a plastic snow shovel with a very short handle. Bum goes on the scoop part, handle between legs, it works surprisingly well for sliders who want to keep their mode of transportation for another downhill run.
• "House for Sale" signs (laminated, apparently having superior sliding capacity). It's as if there are no longer any homes for sale in Greenwich, at least around the neighbourhoods bordering the Park.
• Recycle bins
• A tricycle, (un)steered by an adolescent. I'm pretty sure that hurt
• All kinds of snowboards and surfboards
• A shower curtain

The most ingenious/scary/odd was the really cute Asian couple who worked as a team to try to launch their vehicle from the top of the hill by the Observatory--a long and scary, steep and icy hill. He was sitting on what was almost definitely a short removeable laminated bookshelf. She had a rather substantial square metal pipe/pole (looked like it had been liberated from some scaffolding), which she was using to try to lever under the shelf to send him downhill. I had to turn away, as from a horrible accident. He was aimed pretty much directly at a toddler on a saucer. If she ever managed to make that bookshelf move, there were going to be injuries. I had visions of the unmanned bookshelf speeding downhill, taking people down in its path. I did not look over my shoulder as I walked away, fearing the grim spectacle of broken bones and blood. But I didn't hear any screams of pain, so maybe the shelf never launched.

I managed my own brand of ingenuity, creating my own version of London boots (after all, I told students, no need to pack any, it never really snows in Lond0n). I put on a pair of tights, plastic bags on each foot, a pair of nylon knee highs to keep the plastic in place, topped off by a pair of socks. Then a pair of shoes, it was actually very effective at keeping feet warm and dry, though I'm pretty sure I'll have to write off those shoes.

Oh...that just means I'll need to go shoe shopping. Darn it.