Mrs KY is 27 today, and so far it has been a pretty excellent day. K has been causing mayhem in the household, chewing her way through the shoes, pulling the DVDs off the shelf, and helping herself to the washing.

I have been continuing to put loads of items for sale on Amazon, which has been a fantastic way of raising money for our trip to Russia later this month. The whole thing has finally come together, after we booked the flights earlier this week and managed to find a place who would get visas sorted for us without charging a massive amount for a quick turnaround. The one wonderful thing about heading to Samara is that, whether this current cold spell is successful or not, snow is guaranteed for me for the middle of the month. Much of the Samaran 5 day forecasts in recent times have had snow possibilities on 4 out of the 5 days. There is no doubt we live too far west.

At 17:55 I am sitting here writing my blog whilst watching South Africa bid to chase down Pakistan's 351, which seems a tall order. Even accounting for the talent of the Australians, I think we are possibly the only side in the world capable of doing this. Currently 88-2 after 15, so the game is not over, even though the loss of De Villiers was a big blow.

Anyway, let's talk about the forthcoming snow event as we are on a weather site. It seems to me that in Rotherham we are either too far north, too far south, too far east or too far west for most events. I know I have to be careful with my moments when people come from places like Abingdon, but even there must surely be about to hit gold tonight. It seems that the system is going to stall somewhere to the southwest of us, over the Birmingham area. Snow looks like a real possibility but much will depend on how far north the system can drag itself into the cold air. It is nice to have a preparation time for Russia in weather terms before we go.

Whatever happens though, I thoroughly enjoyed the -7 this morning, and made a special trip outside to deice the car. It is so nice to have proper winter weather for a change. I'd post a picture of snow, but I do not have any. Must get the camera out if it does snow tomorrow.

Whoever you are, and wherever you come from (though if you are north of me you are struggling), I wish you much snow over the next 24hrs.