Stormy Weather

[amateur51]

No snow, no rain and no wind on my cycle into Londonium this morning. In fact, I was going at a great lick (and stopped for all the reds, should you ask!), but I hadn't anticipated a plastic Sainsburys being blown into my chain/

Fully twenty minutes I was on the approach to Tower Bridge, with the back upturned on the pavement, digging and scraping with my house keys to clear the remnants of the bag from the derailleur into which it had become some terribly enmeshed.

And you arrived at your destination all sweetness & light I'm sure - what a pain!

Did we ever hear how your Christmas went shb? You were planning to launch an all-out attack on your kitchen with the degreaser in honour of your new man last I heard

[Stillhomewardbound]

Amateur51

Well, in fairness, it could have happened on Monday morning when I was on the verge of swapping the bike for a canoe. Tiresome bit was the number of times it had wrapped round the back sprocket and derailleur before I realised 'Huston, we've a problem'.

It quite took me back to my days of 1/4 inch tape editing when the spool might overrun and there'd be a spaghetti mountain of tape at your feet. Logic said that you just had to take hold of the last peace into the heap and slowly draw it out and feed it back on the reel. This would work for about the first three feet but then it would snag on another strand at about fourteen feet and you'd have to unravel that, and this snagging and untieing would keep recurring creating a wasted portion of one's life that was never to be got back. Oh happy days!

** How kind of you to remember my pre-Christmas oven dilemma. The local parish priest had said he once did exorcise a car, but when he took a look at the oven he knew he was beat. As he said to me: miracles the Lord can do right now, but the impossible may take a little while!!*

I assured the new man that in the locale of Blackheath ovens were rarely cleaned and the cumulative layers allowed to build up rather in the manner of a balti pot!

I'm not sure that he was wholly convinced but still our christmas oven roast turned out very nicely.

All in all, we had a very pleasant time and it was the first Christmas in eight years in my own flat, not having to be taken in by other families and friends as the spinster uncle.

Even more welcome, we are still seeing each other. He took me to see The King's Speech on Saturday.

[marthe]

We're having a brief interlude of weak sun before the snow starts falling again. Snow all day tomorrow followed by the Montreal Express/Alberta Clipper (very cold weather coming from Canada) with temps as low as 6F. It will be cold Sat-Mon when it warms up in time for Handsome Husband's return from the Mother Country on Tuesday. He reports bone-chilling cold and freezing fog up in the NW of England. Stillhomewardbound: bad luck with the plastic bag and your derailleur; good job getting it sorted out under trying circumstances. Salymap: BBC TV weather reports (the ones on Country File) are clear as mud to me and G. We'll both shake our heads, laugh, and say "what did he/she actually say?"

[salymap]

marthe, I hope the coming weather is not as bad as it sounds.Re. Countryfile's weather forecasters, one messageborder used to make me laugh by saying when he and his wife saw Daniel Corbett presenting the weather on TV they always turned to each other and said "Am I not lovely"? Rather unfair perhaps, but he does perform a sort of stately ballet when pointing to the maps. bws saly

[marthe]

Thanks, Saly! Time to dig out the long johns! The snow shovel is by the front door ready to clear a path for my wonderful mail lady (she's just returned from Hawaii poor thing!) Tomorrow's coffee meeting with my flower show vice-chair has been put off until sometime next week. It will be too cold and snowy to think of things floral anyway. I've a good pot of soup made and logs stacked by the fireplaces so I'll be ready when the deep freeze hits on Saturday. My two cats have found cozy spots for napping. We're in good shape here!

Is Daniel Corbett still presenting the weather on CF? Is he a rather thin man who pirouettes a bit when he steps up to the weather map? Lately there have been young ladies in slinky trousers and blouses. bws marthe

[salymap]

Morning marthe, yes DAN C is the thin man who dances. He does various programmes, I rather like him. I must get my printer sorted out. Since putting new ink cartridges in, it won't work. Always something as they say.

hope it's not too cold foryou. bws sal

[greenilex]

The best thing about Daniel C. is his use of English - very precise and polished, a real treat.

And he always finishes with the ritual "That's your weather - for now!" which reassures us he'll soon be back.

Today there is a fair amount of cloud here, but with good breaks in it.

[Uncle Monty]

I believe Dan was a weather man somewhere in the southern States before he came back here. Heaven knows what they made of him over there (probably thought we're all like that), but when he first started here he was like a man with his fingers in a 240v socket. He has visibly calmed down over the last year or two. I like him.

[mangerton]

The best thing about Daniel C. is his use of English - very precise and polished, a real treat.

I have to take issue, I'm afraid. On Radio 4 his diction is abysmal, the worst by far of all the forecasters. I live in a place called "Sco'n". Others live in a place called "Ingwales". "As we work our way through the afternoon". Many of us don't, and what's wrong with the word "during"? It saves five words, which might mean he could speak more slowly and gabble less.

Things may be different on TV; I don't know.

[greenilex]

Maybe a bit of extra radio training wouldn't come amiss...

[Chris Newman]

I do not mind a bit of variety amongst weathermen. Even Iain Macaskill with his mouth full of marbles was fun. My favourite has to be STV and later Meridian's Carl Tyler. He was so much fun and enthusiastic with it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79THM0Y1xM4

Dare I say it? he reminds me a bit of Alan Johnson (in the news) with his bubbly style before the camera.

For a few years Carl was a neighbour in Salisbury but has since retired to a nearby village. I still see him in the supermarket shopping. He used to cause little giggles amongst viewers by informing us about the wind situation: "...and your winds will be strong and northerly this evening." One day that stopped as someone complained and he was forced to say "The wind(s)".

[marthe]

Morning all! More lovely (ha ha) snow on the ground. I'll be out shovelling the walks as soon as I've had my coffee. My neighbor has just done the sidewalk (pavement) in front of my house with his snowblower. I'm always grateful for this kindness because our stretch of pavement is lengthy. We don't have a snowblower so it's shovel power here. City ordinance requires one to clear the pavement in front of one's house five hours after the end of a snowstorm. Unfortunately this rule is not enforced and many don't comply so walking around after a storm means walking in the street!

Yes I like Dan Corbett from Country File.Usually whenever I watch the forecast I'll be looking at the low pressure system that's just left us and is lingering off the coast of Newfoundland. I often wonder if and when it will reach the UK.

Salymap: hope all goes well with your printer and computer. For many years (until his retirement) there was a weather forecaster on a local TV station who would often say"dastardly computers" whenever there was a glitch in the weather-forecasting technology. I often feel that way when things go wrong with mine and can sympathize you about your tech problems. Fortunately, I've got in-house tech support because my husband works with the darn things as an IT person at a local university. Still, I often feel as if I'm lagging behind the rest of the crowd.

[salymap]

Morning marthe. My family techie support is in Devon, a long way from me. It means Christmas visits are usually a frantic question and answer session, along with the presents and general catching up. A good outside 'expert' is hard to find, but find I must soon. 2AM here and back to bed I go. best wishes

[marthe]

Hope you have a good sleep Saly. I'm sipping a bit of sherry and trying to work up some enthusiasm for clearing some of the paperwork on my desk. As you can see, the for3 board has trumped the paperwork. Oh well there's always tomorrow! Time to find a few extra blankets as the cold air moves in. It's supposed to be frigid through the weekend. I think a cup of hot chocolate is in order to ward off the cold! I hope all is well with your computer. My mother, who gave up her computer recently, used to call in the experts from a local company called "Geeks to Go." The geeks would tweak whatever was wrong and then send a hefty bill for their services. She had been working on a family genealogy and all her "genie" stuff was on the computer. As Art Lake, the Rhode Island weatherman would say, "those dastardly computers!"

[salymap]

I do not feed the local foxes for fear of encouraging them. Yesterday however I gave them a particularly tasteless shop veggie pie and they ate every scrap but left loads of torn up paper, certainly not from here. Ungrateful beasts.I shall clear it up when it stops raining. Poor things, they don't belong in the Kent suburbs, or anywhere really.