Sheffield had its first snow today. There were huge flakes of snow coming down around 4 during work. It didn't stick to any of the surfaces, but there was a lot of snow.

We have regularly had temperatures near freezing during the day, with frosts at night. They are predicting this will be the coldest winter in the last decade.

Today I finished working on a webpage for Victoria's parents. They own a guesthouse called Woodlands Guest House in the country, so they wanted to tap into another marketing method. If you want to look at it, it's at http://members.lycos.co.uk/woodlands/

It has some pictures of the inside and outside of the house and the gardens.

Yesterday was Guy Fawkes Day, a big holiday in England. November 5, 1605, Guy Fawkes and several other Catholic conspirators, tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament. Guy Fawkes was arrested as he entered the cellar to light the fuses. I think I wrote about it last year as well.

Sheffield put on a big concert/fair/bonfire/fireworks display thing outside near the big stadium and arena. Vernon found out about it so he invited us to go with him and his kids out there. There were a lot of people at the event (I would say 10-20,000). We arrived just in time for the bonfire to be lit. It was very large, and kept us somewhat warm even though we were far away. We wandered around the rides but we didn't go on any. We did have some cotton candy (called candy floss here), and I searched for a caramel apple, but they only had candy apples (strangely called toffee apples, which sounds good). There was some live music but they were all bands no one had heard of. They were actually pretty good, though the radio DJs in between acts were horribly annoying.

The fireworks display was very good, and synchronized to several songs. After the fireworks we hurried back to the tram to get on before everyone else got there. We made it on the third tram, and the line had become very long by the time we got on, so we think we did the right thing to hurry. Since we didn't want to go on the rides and it was raining lightly we didn't particularly feel like sticking around.

Recently I discovered that I pay more for my monthly water bill than I do for any other utility (20 pounds a month). This seems strange to me, as I would imagine gas and electricity are more expensive than water. I think the underlying problem is that all utilities were privatized some years ago. Competition in electricity, gas, and phones has kept prices low. However, there is only one water company to choose from, and they seem to be able to charge what they want. Currently we have to pay a fee of 3 pounds a month for the water that falls on the roof of the building and then enters the city drainage pipes outside our house. I keep hoping for a drought so I can tell them I shouldn't have to pay that fee for the month. Our bill is based on the water taken in, and then doubled to account for the sewage going out. However, it just seems really expensive to me. Previously, water and sewage usage has always been included in my rent (in the US, Japan and London). Does this seem expensive (35 dollars a month for a single flat?) to anyone who pays for their water?

Water being more expensive than gas and electricity also seems a bit strange given the amount of rain that falls here.