Grateful

Today I had a meeting in Ayr. It also happened to coincide with an amber weather warning of snow that was coming in from the West supposedly to hit the Scottish Borders around 11 o'clock. Last night I found myself getting anxious about getting stuck and not being able to get home, so phoned one of those who I was meeting with and we agreed that we'd do a telephone meeting instead.

It also happened that Andy Murray got through to the semi-finals of the Australian Open against Roger Federer and the BBC were screening this at 8.30 this morning.

Actually the weather forecasters were wrong. It started snowing at around 7.30 this morning and I was highly relieved I didn't even have to begin the 2.5 hour drive to the West coast, and also that the telephone meeting was to start at 10.45, which gave me an excuse to sit and watch the tennis.

After a great start, Andy Murray lost the second set, which was just when the phone went and I had to scoot off to my office for my phone call. The phone meeting took over an hour and I came back to the TV when Andy Murray was 5-4 up in the 4th set and serving for the match. He lost his serve and Federer went on to win the tie-break. Then Andy Murray upped it and Roger Federer had a dip and it was all over. Whoohoo, Andy Murray in the final!

And just to think at the point Andy Murray won, if I'd have gone to Ayr and actually got there, I would just be getting back into my car and heading back towards the M8, where, according to Traffic Scotland, I would be heading into a large snowfall ready to get stuck - armed, of course, with my travel snow shovel, my blanket, welly boots and other winter accoutrements I permanently travel with these days.

So, all in all, I feel extremely grateful 1) I was stuck at home; 2) there was tennis on the TV; and 3) I'm semi-retired and don't have anywhere particular to be this afternoon. Very grateful indeed.