However, on the Sunday, I looked out at our snowbound cul de sac and my equally snowbound car and decided to give it a go using an old fashioned combo of bus and shanks’ pony. Suitably attired and booted, I walked to the Maypole from Hollywood to be greeted by a posse of bus drivers shaking their heads and saying all bus services had been suspended. However, a single decker non-WMT (or whatever they’re called now) bus hove into sight and despite its warning ‘Not In Service’ the driver stopped and said he was going into town. So despite being delayed by a number of cars stuck in the snow, we eventually made it to Moseley.

At that stage, could have tried to wait for a number 1 but bearing in mind its lack of reliability even in normal conditions, I strode down Wake Green Road and made it to Springfield twenty minutes before my 12.30pm appointment. Predictably, with such bad weather, a lot of people had cancelled or not shown up so I was seen straight away. Slightly worryingly, nobody bothered to take my temperature

After a few questions I was given the vaccine jab and in fairness it didn’t hurt at all despite the size of the needle although the doctor, seeing my Blues face mask, said he felt that I must have had enough pain already. Apparently with the Oxford jab you don’t have to wait for fifteen minutes for any adverse reaction (which you apparently do with the alternative vaccine available) and can leave straight away so I was soon heading for Kings Heath on foot to get a number 50, which according to the bus travel site had restarted.