Snow + civil servants = day off! Don't worry PhDbug, they will not expect anyone to come in today.

I'm up north at the moment, and the snow is fairly minor (about half an inch), but snow showers are expected to move to the north this afternoon and tonight, so anyone heading to London (particularly on the train) better have a few contingency plans.

Thanks you guys!!! glad to hear croydon is snowier:)

Have resigned to my laptop, and have put some vegetable and noodle soup with chicken stock on the boil (which is smelling yummy) and shall now think about life....philosophy....what will be....and so on...

how else to spend a forced holiday (cant even goof around with the snow cos of fever!!)

love to all!

It's knee deep here in Leatherhead, Surrey and still snowing lightly! We donned our wellies and tramped as far as Sainsbury for supplies (the only place open here) but now safely in the warm getting work done. The snow makes the room much lighter which helps! No getting the cars out and with lots of roads closed no one round here was getting to work today. My partner's at home trying to get on with things but I think you'll find most offices will be in the same situation and not much will be happening today! :-)

If the snow carries on - I'm in trouble. I have my viva tomorrow... and a job interview in London the following day. I need it to melt, desperately.

Aloha - have you got a Plan B, in case the snow continues? It's been the same all day where I am in central London, it keeps on falling in mini-blizzards. No sign of melting yet.

Good luck with your viva and interview if they go ahead though. (up)

If its any consolation - where I am its now turned to drizzly sleet and its forecast to rain tonight - depending on where you come from you might be ok - no more snow that I'm aware of near London til poss fri - but then when did the weather men ever get it right?

What sort of Plan B could one possibly have if my viva is on a snow-bound day? It's an act of God!

Hey Aloha
Where are your examiners coming from? Is it far? To be honest it would have been good if your supervisor had emailed/contacted people today to see if they can definitely make it... Is there no way to check on things?

Maybe we need weather-women for the forecasts to finally get it right...:p

Sleepyhead, that's exactly what I was thinking. As the weather conditions and forecasts are so dire practically everywhere now, someone organising the viva must have anticipated that maybe not everyone would be able to get in tomorrow. A good research administrator should have checked with the examiners about travel arrangements, given the circumstances.

Aloha, can you contact your supervisor tonight to confirm what's going on, just in case? It is an unusual situation, after all.

It is rather difficult for supervisors/examiners to say whether or not they can come to a viva tomorrow since they don't know for sure what the weather will be like tomorrow just like everyone else.

Commonsense, as one of mine will come from Scotland and one from the Midlands, it wouldn't be ludicrous to think they might have problems travelling to London if mine were tomorrow. You can hazard a guess to some extent based on information available, especially during the biggest snowfall in 18 years.

I'm thinking of you all as I sit here in sunny Queensland, Australia. It's about 30 degrees C here but I've seen all the snow on the news. Very exciting! Except for those people, like Aloha, who really have somewhere to be. I hope it all works out for you. Even without snow I can't go anywhere as I sprained my ankle yesterday at my son's swimming carnival so it's another day in front of the computer for me. Oh well, that's how I was going to spend it anyway! ;-)

Aloha and Phdbug, please come back and give us an update on how it all went! As for me, the trains seem back to normal now, hooray! It's back to rainy and miserable in Newcastle again :-)