Imagine a little boy 5 years old, born in the desert and never seeing snow (that he can remember anyway). I wish I could have bottled up the excitement as the first snow started to fall. It wasn't just the excitement of Oliver, but also of all the adults in the house and his two little friends (also from Qatar) who were visiting at the time. When it startled to settle, the boys (and men) grabbed their boots, hats and gloves and sledge and played in the newly settled snow. The ladies, clearly the more intelligent species, watched from the window and continued to drink wine. As the night unfolded, it was clear our guests weren't going to be able to leave and so the excitement continued into the night.
The next day, we hit the Derbyshire slopes. Although it took a while for him to get used to the snow spraying in his face and the tumbling off the sledge, he enjoyed his first sledging experience. There is something about the snow, that makes people smile. A once quiet and lonely winters street, becomes a community where people ditch the cars and set off on foot.
As always happens with snow, the first day is so pretty, the days that follow are trechorous ice, slush and inconvenience. The next day, the desert child wanted to hit the slopes again, this time it wasn't white powder, but as expected sheer fast ice - he loved it. The day after he built his first snowman and snow dogs, but as the temperature went up, the snowman didn't stick around and we had a few tears to deal with. So now we are back to waiting for the next snow fall, watching the weather forecast and checking for snow each morning. Mind you, it makes a change from opening the curtains to sunshine every day of his life.
