Stormy Weather

[Serial_Apologist]

Nasty branch story!!

I've cycled this week... It's rain that puts me off - it all gets too dangerous then in terms of braking and visibility, as well as being just darned unpleasant.

I tend to soldier on through gales - the only time I'm really exposed, it's relatively safe and off the road (parks etc). You're right about buildings though - my bugbear is Centre Point, past which I ride on the way home. It has the cross-section of a wing or propellor-blade - if the wind is in the wrong quarter, it creates vacuums and vortices that would be dangerous but for the fact that the traffic around it is so snarled up that one is normally going at almost 0 mph.

I shall shortly be pedalling forth.

Wish me luck!

Good luck Caliban - if I'm not too late! It's dry as I write, though there are one or two showers now developing.

[Serial_Apologist]

As to cyling - I just never do it! I didn't have a bike as a child, although both brothers had bikes (as I recall modified Claud Butlers?) and my eldest brother was mad keen and long distance and time trials, his last bike was also a Butler. I was persuaded to learn and then to buy a mountain bike for some off-road rough stuff here. I cannot say I enjoyed it, nor on-road cycling, I was too nervous in traffic and felt silly in a helmet and elbow defenders and that's the extent of my cycling career. Total wuss!

A cousin taught me to ride while I was staying, aged 12. "Blessed" with an overprotective mum, I was restricted by order to their lawn and never allowed out on the road. I didn't get my own first bike until I was 27, and although I've had a fair number of near-squeaks, and one accident in which I landed on my face, smashing my nose, I've never looked back! Well, not literally, you understand!! Appearance doesn't matter to me - the yellow jacket being de rigueur for the night time - although to see the skinny clones in their tight-fitting lycra, wrap-around shades and ridiculous skateboard helmets rushing past me () one would think that for the unisex fraternity it's all-important. "They're so tight-fitting I'm sure it's affected our family planning", my ex-next door told me as she pegged her other half's on the washing line.

[Anna]

See the skinny clones in their tight-fitting lycra, wrap-around shades and ridiculous skateboard helmets rushing past me () one would think that for the unisex fraternity it's all-important.

Is that a description of Caliban? No, I think not, where are the ocelots loping behind him on silken leashes ...........? (good job he's on his bike and can't see this or we might be in trouble!)

[Nick Armstrong]

Is that a description of Caliban? No, I think not, where are the ocelots loping behind him on silken leashes ...........? (good job he's on his bike and can't see this or we might be in trouble!)

Not yet I'm not!!!

Good luck Caliban - if I'm not too late! It's dry as I write, though there are one or two showers now developing.

It's not too late - see above!! Sunny here, which means a soaking in about 10 I suppose

Just about to saddle up, ocelots suitably harnessed!!

[Anna]

Just about to saddle up, ocelots suitably harnessed!!

God Speed with a following wind ...........
Edit: I've been experimenting with gnocchi. I feel nothing will, ever, come to a orgasmic, fulfilling conclusion which is based on potato nuggets boiled in water..

[Nick Armstrong]

God Speed with a following wind ...........
Edit: I've been experimenting with gnocchi. I feel nothing will, ever, come to a orgasmic, fulfilling conclusion which is based on potato nuggets boiled in water..

Not quite ready to address the gnocchi issue, as I just have to say

Flippin' 'eck !!!

That was bracing! Anna, your hopes for a following wind were kind but utterly ignored by the Deity!!

S_A I am so glad you prompted me to write about

my bugbear is Centre Point, past which I ride on the way home. It has the cross-section of a wing or propellor-blade - if the wind is in the wrong quarter

I've now remembered which that is: it's in it now! South westerly... so that as I approached Centre Point from opposite direction, the wind was hurtling round each side of the tower and created a sort of vacuum at the north end... It was incredible - like a great big hand flat against my chest - I was pedalling but not going anywhere And then huge whirlwind eddies which spat me out and up Oxford Street..

Thanks to your warning, S_A, I bided my time and tackled it with no buses etc alongside...

And got home safe....


Hot tea now!

[mangerton]

Just catching up on this thread now. Drove to York today, through torrential rain in places, and thick mist at Carter Bar.

Re cycling - I did most of mine in the sixties! Long before lycra and funny hats were invented. I had a few falls, but had no bones broken. With today's emphasis on h & s, I'm sometimes amazed the human race has survived until now.

Anna, you have my deepest sympathy about this foopball (sic). I think it's the world cup or somesuch.

[Serial_Apologist]

Not quite ready to address the gnocchi issue, as I just have to say

Flippin' 'eck !!!

That was bracing! Anna, your hopes for a following wind were kind but utterly ignored by the Deity!!

S_A I am so glad you prompted me to write about



I've now remembered which that is: it's in it now! South westerly... so that as I approached Centre Point from opposite direction, the wind was hurtling round each side of the tower and created a sort of vacuum at the north end... It was incredible - like a great big hand flat against my chest - I was peddling but not going anywhere And then huge whirlwind eddies which spat me out and up Oxford Street..

Thanks to your warning, S_A, I bided my time and tackled it with no buses etc alongside...

And got home safe....


Hot tea now!

Phew Cali - thank heavens for that! And I didn't even pray...

[Anna]

Terrible floods in Mid and West Wales. Odd thing is that this has not happened for 40 years, since flood defence schemes, but it appears maintenance on them has ceased hence this result. Whether that's correct I don't know but on a smaller scale a lot of the flooding in Rhondda Cynon Taff lately has been caused by lack of maintenance of culverts, brooks, etc., and with increasing cutbacks and increasingly erratic weather patterns, who knows the result. My great-aunt in Canton used to suffer dreadful flooding and the stench of filthy water in your house has to be smelt to be believed.

We here have an ongoing battle with the Council and developers about building yet more houses on a flood plain, already the original houses in Phase 1 cannot now get insurance. People have to live somewhere but the developers are somewhere in central London and have no comprehension of Mother Nature and her needs. Hello, that's why they are called water meadows

Anyway, a bright and breezy day, hopefully it will have dried up the sogginess so I can get out tomorrow and wreak havoc on the nettles. Anything to escape the endless footie.

[EdgeleyRob]

Terrible floods in Mid and West Wales.

I feel for anybody suffering during the bad weather,I shouldn't really complain about getting wet every time I take the dog for a walk should I ?

Anything to escape the endless footie.

Nooooo there are only 2 games per day

[Nick Armstrong]

I dare hardly mention I'm about to watch the Holland v Denmark game amid a symphony of twittering with my Dutch friends!

But I just looked at the news briefly on Sky and while I was watching they didn't actually say where the floods were. Looks awful. Glad you're not up to your knees, Anna! I think I recall you are on higher ground...

[salymap]

Augener were moved from a large old building in Gt. Marlborough St. to next door to Centre Point, then being built.
At lunch time we stood on our flat roof and watched the giant next door growing. I never liked the way those T shaped blocks just rested on each other with no apparent support. Getting out of our little building to the Tube Station, there was always a terrible wind blowing. I don't like the rec ent reports on it either Take care cyclists.

[Anna]

I dare hardly mention I'm about to watch the Holland v Denmark game amid a symphony of twittering with my Dutch friends!

But I just looked at the news briefly on Sky and while I was watching they didn't actually say where the floods were. Looks awful. Glad you're not up to your knees, Anna! I think I recall you are on higher ground...

They probably didn't say where the floods were because they can't pronounce the names!! The worst affected areas were Talybont, Dol-y-bont, Llandre, and Penrhyncoch - all in Ceredigion - Machynlleth in Powys was also flooded and more of Powys is on alert. Machynlleth is of course the site of the first ever Parliament, founded by Owain Glendwr in 1404, long before the English had ever considered such a thing .... lovely town, very fond of it. Masses of flood warnings all over of course. I wonder, shall I break the habit of a lifetime and watch the footie? The Dutch, didn't they cheat in the world cup and get their come uppence?

[Nick Armstrong]

They probably didn't say where the floods were because they can't pronounce the names!! The worst affected areas were Talybont, Dol-y-bont, Llandre, and Penrhyncoch - all in Ceredigion - Machynlleth in Powys was also flooded and more of Powys is on alert. Machynlleth is of course the site of the first ever Parliament, founded by Owain Glendwr in 1404, long before the English had ever considered such a thing .... lovely town, very fond of it. Masses of flood warnings all over of course. I wonder, shall I break the habit of a lifetime and watch the footie? The Dutch, didn't they cheat in the world cup and get their come uppence?

Talybont-on-Usk?!??! I have friends there! Stayed there for a week years ago! Hope they're ok!

Can't recall a "Dutch in cheating shocker" episode but you know me and my memory

[cloughie]

They probably didn't say where the floods were because they can't pronounce the names!! The worst affected areas were Talybont, Dol-y-bont, Llandre, and Penrhyncoch - all in Ceredigion - Machynlleth in Powys was also flooded and more of Powys is on alert. Machynlleth is of course the site of the first ever Parliament, founded by Owain Glendwr in 1404, long before the English had ever considered such a thing .... lovely town, very fond of it. Masses of flood warnings all over of course. I wonder, shall I break the habit of a lifetime and watch the footie? The Dutch, didn't they cheat in the world cup and get their come uppence?

Machynlleth is indeed a lovely town. Mrs C and I stayed in a friend's caravan there a few times in the 1990s. I remember a china shop with a delightful elderly proprietor where we purchased the odd bit of Spode and a butchers which detailed the local source of his lamb.