beyond our wildest dreams

"It's a scene one barely witnesses in London: one of innocence, albeit momentary; of snow in a city that doesn't do extremes of weather; of hostile battle lines suspended and replaced - just for the day - by playful ones; of gratuitous wonders that fall from the sky and blindside you. Yesterday, London was filled with such wonders. The headline said: -5C and we're all going snowhere. Yesterday, London went on a trip to snowhere, which sounds like oblivion, but is infinitely nicer."
- article from the Guardian

So after I retreating back to my room and drying myself up I got ready to sleep. I actually changed into pyjamas and everything. Then I looked out the window and saw people frolicking in the snow in Princes Gardens, and I couldn't take it anymore. Threw on some warm clothes over my sleepwear and went out in a jiffy.

It was like a scene out of the Day After Tomorrow, if I got the movie right. The neighbourhood that we had grown to be so familiar with had, within a matter of hours, been transformed into a thing of beauty. Not that South Kensington wasn't already pretty, but the sight tonight was nothing short of breathtaking. Everything was covered in at least 5 inches of virgin snow, unspoiled for the most part so far. (since it was 12 plus am and the streets were pretty empty save for this mob of students which we avoided) The three of us (ming wang, huiqi and me) headed in the direction of Royal Albert Hall and spent most of our time in the vicinity snapping pictures, hoping to capture with each shot the flawless beauty of that night (whether or not we succeeded you might want to judge for yourself)





I woke up earlier than expected the next morning and immediately checked my email to see if school had been cancelled. No new mail - but the headlines suggested that London's transport system had been crippled. So no school right? Wrong. The bioengineering dept decided that London's biggest snowstorm in 18 years shouldn't keep them from holding classes. Well it certainly kept me from attending them.

Spent the morning snapping more pictures with Huiqi, who was clearly as big a fan of snow as I was. Then joined Shiwei and Jing Ming to go Kensington Gardens where we met up with Anne, Weizhao, Mei Hui, Bernie and many many more people to build snow sculptures. Our snowman didn't last long, with a group of destructive civil engineers nearby. (the irony)

Day 2 of London snow was charming too, for you could see the snowscape more clearly in daylight; however nothing could beat the night of 1 Feb (or the morning of 2 feb =p) when London had just been freshly painted white, when no one knew about this new world but a privileged few, when this world seemed to belong to us and us only.