The snow started as predicted yesterday evening and by this morning had managed a miserable 2 to 3 inches here, but much more further south. I was due to go and deliver my daughter's dog to the vets for a routine procedure (viz nail trimming), and this would have involved an early start and a cross country drive, but she rang and said she would take him herself.

By the time I got out and dug our car out of the snow everything was melting and the sun was out. Somewhere around nearly all day has been one (maybe more) large helicopters, probably Chinooks. Always just out of sight but their distinctive sound clearly audible. Probably the Marines taking advantage of the weather to do some ice/snow training somewhere cheaper than Norway or Canada, or it could have been just somebody training how to fly in these conditions.

It is strange what people do when it snows. The roads, although perfectly passable, become deserted but the local supermarket fills up with idiots like me panic buying bread and candles. Presumably we already have the bells and books. Living in the country the worst thing than can happen is that you run out of toilet paper or you have an electricity cut that goes on for days. Candles are vital, especially those nice thick church ones that burn slowly. Torches, batteries, bulbs, gas fires and gas camping stoves are very useful too. I tend to be the one who in bad weather does the shopping for those neighbours who can't venture out. Ah well.

So I managed to get five miles to our nearest Tesco store. It is ironic really that after countless centuries of human development we finally invented the supermarket. Nothing less than a miracle of technology and logistics which we take for granted will have within it products from around the world at ridiculously low costs. Trying to describe on of these places so someone of a century ago they would have thought it a deranged fantasy.

If we want to spread civilization, democracy and apple pie (with or without added cinnamon) around the world then we could do worse than just set up Tesco branches in every corner of the planet. Whole nations would migrate to be closer to them and whole religions collapse under their relentless example of what people really want. Not that they are perfect of course, there are schisms, for example in my family between the cults of Tesco Blue Stripe and the Sainsbury Sect of the Perfect Pre-cooked Meal, but these are minor difficulties.

Believe me, brothers and sisters, the inexorable conquest of consumer choice and the world wide tourism movement are more inevitable than global warming and the ultimate cockroach takeover of the planet. Next time it snows near you, go worship!!