Wednesday, January 28, 2004
Ok so it has now (see yesterday's post).
This morning: vague suggestion of snow, but you'd think if the weather going for "bleak midwinter" it would put more effort in to it. About a 4.5 for artistic interpretation, and 3.0 for performance (mostly because it had settled). And then it got sunny, and so everything promptly thawed. And I thought they said it was going to be awful weather? Must just be the Met Office hyping it all up, so they can't get blamed for not warning people.
So they day continued like every other day. Then it gets to 5:30pm. Big flash, filling room. Er...was that what I thought that was? Loud crashing rumble. Apparently so. It is January right? That month renowned for its thunderstorms? Another pulse fills the sky (well it was dark). More shuddering noise. And then someone turns the vicious hail machine on, sending it slamming into the windows. More arcs and flashes, the hail on the window providing the cymbal and the snare to the thunder's rhythmic tympani and bass.
The hail, caught by the streetlight, is verging on the horizontal. Another flash, with closely following wall of sound, as the wind flips direction. The particles streaming across suddenly turn to snow, in flurry that blocks most of the closer lights. Ok, so maybe this was what the weathermen were talking about.
I try being childish, to go outside in the snow. Open door, change mind. Discover I don't need to cross the threshold to experience snow settling on me. I decide that even most children would think that going out in that is somewhat beyond the call of duty. So I retreat inside. Is it rather callous to start placing bets on which lampost[1] will be driven into first? Bagsy the one on the outside of a corner at the end of a straight bit of road that people speed on (well people have driven into it in broad daylight on a clear summer's day). Although one of the ones on the hill could be a good bet if the current slush freezes (even I know that approaching it revving madly in 1st is not the greatest idea).
[1] Word insists that’s got two p's, but that doesn’t look right. Oh well.
So, yeah, winter appears to have remembered that it's had it's cue (it's just all the plants have gone "sod it, it's spring").
Hmm, not doing so well on the web part of this web log.
So to remedy this, here's a wondrous list of UK weathery type things.
BBC
Met Office
Metcheck (who have helpfully blocked part of their site due to snow induced traffic levels).
XCWeather (apparently hourly data, including that from buoys, and it does France too). Currently showing very blustery and chaotic wind pattern.
And how come every time I go near weather information I always get distracted by the shipping forecast? How can you not love the mantra of curious phrases? Especially when they are as helpful as moderate or good, occasionally poor (that's visibility by the way). And does anyone else feel sorry for the poor lows that go round "losing its identity"?
But it'll always be Finnisterre to me. Ok, so I rarely venture out of the range of Wight-Portland...Hmm, that car was making odd sounds as it went down, I think it was doing a very slow skid.
Anyway I'm going to go and...no I'm not as it's an hour earlier than I thought it was. And which cunning people put both Rob Brydon's new thing (The Director's Commentary) and the new series of Frazier on at the same time? And both are on a bit late anyway. According to the Guardian Guide, he of Marion and Geoff fame's production company is called Jones The Film. Well I though it was funny (it might help if you knew that often in villages, especially welsh ones, people are referred to as their surname and occupation, such as Jones The Taxi [or Taksi if you will]. Or it might not), but then I also though Dafydd The Gay in Little Britain was funny (he being the only gay in the village, and virtually regarding it as a job, not a pastime).
There was something else in the Guide, but I can't remember what it was. Some comment buried amongst the summaries, that assumes no-one will read them (least of all editors).
Anyhoo, I'm sure Frazier will get repeated.
PS. What exactly does one make of a very strictly Christian girl (the one who tired to convert me over pizza) recommending a book in which one of the scenes is about a man trying to hide his erection? This from a girl who acts like she wouldn't...suddenly realising that saying "she wouldn't recognise one if it hit her in the face", is possibly not the best phrasing for this context. I'm just going to give up now.
This morning: vague suggestion of snow, but you'd think if the weather going for "bleak midwinter" it would put more effort in to it. About a 4.5 for artistic interpretation, and 3.0 for performance (mostly because it had settled). And then it got sunny, and so everything promptly thawed. And I thought they said it was going to be awful weather? Must just be the Met Office hyping it all up, so they can't get blamed for not warning people.
So they day continued like every other day. Then it gets to 5:30pm. Big flash, filling room. Er...was that what I thought that was? Loud crashing rumble. Apparently so. It is January right? That month renowned for its thunderstorms? Another pulse fills the sky (well it was dark). More shuddering noise. And then someone turns the vicious hail machine on, sending it slamming into the windows. More arcs and flashes, the hail on the window providing the cymbal and the snare to the thunder's rhythmic tympani and bass.
The hail, caught by the streetlight, is verging on the horizontal. Another flash, with closely following wall of sound, as the wind flips direction. The particles streaming across suddenly turn to snow, in flurry that blocks most of the closer lights. Ok, so maybe this was what the weathermen were talking about.
I try being childish, to go outside in the snow. Open door, change mind. Discover I don't need to cross the threshold to experience snow settling on me. I decide that even most children would think that going out in that is somewhat beyond the call of duty. So I retreat inside. Is it rather callous to start placing bets on which lampost[1] will be driven into first? Bagsy the one on the outside of a corner at the end of a straight bit of road that people speed on (well people have driven into it in broad daylight on a clear summer's day). Although one of the ones on the hill could be a good bet if the current slush freezes (even I know that approaching it revving madly in 1st is not the greatest idea).
[1] Word insists that’s got two p's, but that doesn’t look right. Oh well.
So, yeah, winter appears to have remembered that it's had it's cue (it's just all the plants have gone "sod it, it's spring").
Hmm, not doing so well on the web part of this web log.
So to remedy this, here's a wondrous list of UK weathery type things.
BBC
Met Office
Metcheck (who have helpfully blocked part of their site due to snow induced traffic levels).
XCWeather (apparently hourly data, including that from buoys, and it does France too). Currently showing very blustery and chaotic wind pattern.
And how come every time I go near weather information I always get distracted by the shipping forecast? How can you not love the mantra of curious phrases? Especially when they are as helpful as moderate or good, occasionally poor (that's visibility by the way). And does anyone else feel sorry for the poor lows that go round "losing its identity"?
But it'll always be Finnisterre to me. Ok, so I rarely venture out of the range of Wight-Portland...Hmm, that car was making odd sounds as it went down, I think it was doing a very slow skid.
Anyway I'm going to go and...no I'm not as it's an hour earlier than I thought it was. And which cunning people put both Rob Brydon's new thing (The Director's Commentary) and the new series of Frazier on at the same time? And both are on a bit late anyway. According to the Guardian Guide, he of Marion and Geoff fame's production company is called Jones The Film. Well I though it was funny (it might help if you knew that often in villages, especially welsh ones, people are referred to as their surname and occupation, such as Jones The Taxi [or Taksi if you will]. Or it might not), but then I also though Dafydd The Gay in Little Britain was funny (he being the only gay in the village, and virtually regarding it as a job, not a pastime).
There was something else in the Guide, but I can't remember what it was. Some comment buried amongst the summaries, that assumes no-one will read them (least of all editors).
Anyhoo, I'm sure Frazier will get repeated.
PS. What exactly does one make of a very strictly Christian girl (the one who tired to convert me over pizza) recommending a book in which one of the scenes is about a man trying to hide his erection? This from a girl who acts like she wouldn't...suddenly realising that saying "she wouldn't recognise one if it hit her in the face", is possibly not the best phrasing for this context. I'm just going to give up now.
