Alex and myself were meant to go see this yesterday evening at The Vue, Reading. We duly rolled up on a cold Sunday evening at 7 p.m. to be told it was sold out. Really? Anyway we bought tickets for tonight, Monday night (Clare is not interested).
I write this at 4 p.m. The snow has been falling continuously since just after lunch. Nevertheless the intrepid duo are still intent on going. More later on what we thought if and when we get back.
LATER
We were due to set off at 6.30 p.m. for the 7 p.m. start. I had just put on my heavy coat, scarf and gloves when we received a call from the new owners of our house in Andover. The power fuse was tripping, plunging the house into darkness. Did we have any idea of the cause?
The subtext of all of these post-sale interactions: "Is there a terrible problem with the house you didn't disclose to us?"
I had only the faintest memory of a similar problem so couldn't help.
We then walked down to retrieve the car from its four inch snow burial. Eventually, the clock ticking away, we drive through the gates of Alex's little gated community by the Thames to see the roundabout ahead gridlocked. Nothing was moving.
I spun the car - not a problem on that ice - and we reparked and took to our feet. Nothing like a bracing one mile walk through the centre of Reading watching the roads packed with stationary cars and wiping the snow from one's eyes.
On the way we dallied to help a motorist whose car had stuck on the ice. This consumed another ten minutes.
Finally we arrived at the Reading Vue. The time was 7.25 p.m. and we were resigned to missing the start of "Avatar". Screen 4 was surprisingly two thirds full (I had thought that the cinema might even have closed) and the film started about ten minutes later. We had arrived at the ideal time.
Our views about the film will be reported later. At the end we walked home, the inner ring road dual carriageway to Caversham was still completely blocked.
I received a text message: "Problem solved, the fault was with the refrigerator light, now sorted."
Weather!
