I am writing to Mr Ugg

We spent a day in Gander and the temperature got down to -28 which with wind chill became -40 - which is very cold indeed - too cold to walk to the shopping center across the road from the hotel. We bought some wine and left three bottles in the car overnite. These froze solid and popped their corks.

We did not get to Fogo island. There was another storm and we drove from Gander to the ferry terminal to discover that the ferries had been cancelled for the day. There was no point in us going to Fogo just for one night so we decided to go back to St. John's.

This was the trip from hell as the road was covered with snow drifts and patches of ice. High winds created snow storms and at times we ground almost to a halt on the highway because visibility was zero. Cate was driving and managed to get back all the way to St Johns before she braked late and slid into another car at a set of traffic lights. We were of course fully insured - but damn near froze to death exchanging details with the other driver.

We discovered when we got back that there was a warning in place advising against driving on the Trans Canada Highway - where we had been.

We also discovered - when we returned to the Sheraton - that they had no power - but the bar was open and provided the necessities to sustain life - although we had to sit there wearing our full winter gear including scarves and ugg boots. Since then the city has had regular power outages but we were all given torches so we can find our way around our hotel rooms. We leave at 5:30 AM tomorrow and expect to have to get up in a freezing room and dress in the dark.

We have a wonderful room with a view of the harbor and the city so we can see the hordes of trucks being filled up with snow and then dumping it in the sea. They have made the roads passable but the footpaths are a complete shambles and we spend a lot of our walking time on the roads competing with the traffic. It will be weeks before the city is cleared of snow.

We are much better off than they are in Indianapolis which has been monstered by the polar vortex. Indy has had wind chill temperatures of - 40 and conditions are so bad that driving on any roads is illegal.

There are massive blackouts across Indiana but I rang our neighbors and so far our street is OK - so the cats will be warm. I rang the cat minder and she says that her person has not been able to get to the cats since Saturday - but left them lots of food and water.

We are due to fly to Toronto tomorrow and then to Indy - but today there are no flights into Indy from anywhere so we may be stuck in Toronto. We are looking at options to get back via bus and rail as we are worried about the cats.

The only bad thing that has happened on the trip is that my ugg boots leak - so I always have wet feet. I am going to write to Mr ugg to complain. This should not happen!