A snowplough arrived in Dicksonfield this morning, about four days too late. The driver sat for a while, mobile phone pressed to his ear, no doubt reporting the absence of snow to his management. Had he bothered to drive around the back of some of the blocks or even just to the bottom of the entry road he'd have found something to plough but he put his phone back in his pocket and drove off.

No thanks to the ploughboy but normal traffic on top of snow clearing and grit spreading by some residents has brought our main drag into a passable without too much care condition.

This is a fine pair of boots that I have owned for many years and here they are sporting the latest in city winter walking technology.

We're all familiar with strapping on crampons when we take to mountain snowfields and I strapped on the urban equivalent on Sunday to get home from London Street.

Called Yaktrax and available from all good outdoor shops they must be the bestest birthday present I've been given this year so far.

Need cheering up in the bleak and snowy wasteland that is Edinburgh this morning?

Try Ronnie Corbett, one of the city's most cheerful characters, in a sketch for the electronic age.

There was a treat for snooker fans last night when John Higgins topped his come back from match fixing allegations with a come back on the table.

Trailing by 9 frames to 5 he took 5 frames in a row to win the UK championship by one frame.

For anyone who struggles to move the cue ball in a straight line from one end of the table to the other his skills are supernatural.

See the closing stages.

I've been watching the struggles of my fellow citizens against the winter weather with what might best be called amused indifference.

It's a long time since I did a 360 in my Fiat X19 in a late night snowstorm on the A68 driving back to Edinburgh from Norwich. One of the many benefits of being retired and living in a comfortably warm flat with a supermarket within spitting distance is that I don't have to go anywhere and if I do it's not far.

Who'd be young?

Today's Woman's Hour included an item on burlesque in which pro and con arguments were put. I liked the definition given at the top of the programme. It's posh girls stripping off when they ought to know better.

That's private education for you.

With help I got my car dug out on Friday and got down to the borders on Saturday for a Tempest reunion party. We drove down on clear roads through beautiful snow-covered countryside. The journey back on Sunday was just the same but today we're snowed in again.

What perfect timing, but that production must be blessed for didn't the rain stop just in time during the last performance to give us an entire run whose outdoor scenes were unaffected by weather.

I got an email in response to ordering something on-line that told me "Your order has been shipped and will be delivered to you within the next few days. You can check on the status of your order 9999 at any time by clicking on http:link."

So, eager to find out where it had got to in this fiendish weather, I clicked on the link and up came a Royal Mail page saying "Recorded signed for items are only tracked after the item has been delivered........Please try again later."

Are they serious?

There is growing discontent being voiced on the radio this morning about automatic school closures because of the snow. I saw a man and child arrive at the local primary at five past nine. They both left two minutes later. I expect he got straight onto the phone to join the complaining band.

Child safety is said to be the issue. That can't be the explanation for the cancellation of the daytime adult education class that I should be attending at this very minute. The school in which it takes place has someone there answering the phone so it can't be buried in snow. (Neither the school nor the phone.)

The man who is organizing a petition to parliament to prevent schools and other organizations from banning parents from taking pictures of their little darlings in nativity plays on the grounds of child safety might think about extending it to cover school closures as well.