LOUSY, ROTTEN, Part 2

Wind this time, that’s what. It has been so vicious today, but not as bad as it’s been in South Wales and further down South.

I had to nip to the shop half an hour ago and I was dreading it, but it has dropped a lot compared to what it was like earlier.

Hope none of you have sustained any damage to yourselves, outside furniture or greenhouses.

My flag pole was blown down and my displays got dislodged but nothing too bad, ita all fixable

To be honest, I don't know why they hype up these weather warnings. I've known it to be much worse here in years gone by but, to be fair, South Wales and the South West of England have had it very bad indeed.

Apparently, some people get a harsh weather alarm on their mobile phones in red zone areas, but nobody needs them really. If they can still see and hear, they only have to listen to hear the wind, or see trees bending over. From my memory, there never used to be weather warnings, except at sea.

Its because of, Michael Fish, he was a weather presenter and in 1987 he dulled down a storm, It turned out to be a hurricane and turned the town of Seven oaks into a new town of, Oaks blown down, as well as lots of storm damage all over England

Michael Fish

the devastation of 1987

I just drove through France and then from Folkestone to here, strong wind and torrential rain for 90% of the time. South of the Pyrenees was fine, the nastiness started as soon as we came out of the tunnel at Vielha.
It makes me feel like going straight back!

I remember that, but perhaps he didn't have the technology in 1987 that there is today, and we should be made aware of what may come, but I think they hype it up too much these days. I knew something like this was coming a couple of days ago as I check the BBC weather forecast every day and it said strong winds and heavy rain, but no rain today, thank goodness.

God, it's lovely out!

I carefully took my flagpole down and laid it out in the back garden. Will put it back up later today still going to be gusty till mid afternoon. Plenty of leaves to clean up green bin will soon be full. What makes the wind sound louder is when it is blowing through all the wires from the telegraph poles. When I am not flying a flag I wrap the ropes round the flagpole to stop the rattling on the mast,cannot really do anything when flying a flag except keep the rope tight

Lovely kiting weather ..

On about kites I lived on Whitledge Green for 39 years and even though it was a large open space never saw any one fly a kite including myself. Many have tried but there must be a down draft from the houses and have I have
spent hours trying to get one off the ground when the kids were little .Used to give up and go onto Cansfield playing field and no problems

Tom, that ferry boat in your clips reminded me of something I experienced years ago as the passengers on that ship must have been terrified.

We always ferried from Belfast to Liverpool when we lived in Londonderry, or Rotterdam to Hull, or Hoek van Holland to Harwich when living in Germany.

Anyway, when coming back to England from NI one time the sea started to get really choppy and there was a Tannoy announcement by the Captain who said we should all stay off the upper decks and try to lie down where we could because the ferry was running into a storm.

Of course, there were big strong soldiers aboard who decided in their best interests it would be best to carry on boozing at the bar, but we’d booked a cabin for the night so went to bed during the eight hour crossing. Lying down was for the best, as the rocking of the boat at least sent me off to sleep because we’d been told that there was a Force 9 gale that night and yes, it was scary. Next morning, hubby and I went for a brekkie in the cafe, but those big strong lads had green faces feeling very poorly having been sick all night!

I was once on a ferry in a force nine and it was frickning, All the bars shut , anything not fixed moved along the decks and crashed into the bulkheads, , I remembered my old Dad's advice , Who was an ex Merchant navy engineer. " if you feel sea sick, watch the horizon" Si a headed for the open deck, I remember the weird feeling of going up a flight of stairs whilst the ship is going down a wave then. changes to coming up a wave and it seems like you're flying, Any road when I got to the top deck, It was't safe to go on as waves were crashing on to the ship, So I found shelter in a waiting room full of people being sick, so abandoned that as well, A friendly crew member led me to a room with a sea view and said, " enjoy the ride from here son" It was a cabin facing the bows and you could sea the bows, diving into the sea and hear the prop coming out of the water and the Wirrrrring noise it made until the Bows lifted out of the water and you could sea the sky and that continued all night,
In the morning the sea was calm and it was announced that, Due to the storm the ferry has made no progress and it will be another 4 hours to docking, So it was a 12 hour sail to make a 8 hour trip,

Done it many times TP ..on a minesweeper !!!!!!

BB at the time seeing the crew members taking at, ' another day in the office' certainly gave me great comfort and reassured me a lot,

I've been to the Isle of Man on the Manx Ferry a few times and it was rough, but not in the same league as the trips from Portsmouth to Bilbao and Santander across the Bay of Biscay.
I don't frighten easily, but that was frightening!!!

Tom, a Force 9 really is scary, but staying below decks was safer where we were, and lying down. We made the crossing in the eight hours (I think).

Those big strong lads didn't half suffer though for their bravado tough-man exterior, but were whingeing like babies next morning. I thought it was hilarious.

Several years ago my partner and I went to the Isle of Man on the ferry. He'd never sailed before and honestly, the sea was like a mill pond with just a little wave now and again, but he felt a bit groggy. Going home again, we sat in what must have been a bar, and we got cups of tea. There was nobody else in there but suddenly, a woman plonked herself down at our table, with a glass of Scotch. As I can't stand the smell of the stuff, I told her in no uncertain terms that if she wanted to sit with us for some company she could get rid of the booze as that was knocking me sick. This was at around 8 a.m. so why she was supping that witch's brew at that hour I've no idea. Anyway, she moved to another table.

The most scary journey I had was taking off from Canada in February in a snow storm,
It was 2005 and my son was doing the final stages of Emigrating over there and I was there just to hold his hand, So he had to finalize his job acceptance, Property buying and banking details, We were there a week and on the day of our return the airport was on ' White out' situations which means, some flights go and, some get cancelled but, you had to be at the airport because if you did't get there, you could not be re sceduled for another flight, So we went early because the place was knee deep in snow and getting there was a challenge in itself,
Our flight was due to take off at 23.00 but the displays said, yet to be confirmed, it went to 23.30 and later postponed to 23.55 and the displays confirmed the flight, The weather was blizzard conditions on the ground but, better further up in the sky, so we boarded, I've never seen so many empty seats on a boing 737 before. We walked to our seats in the cattle class and there was just My son and me, We strapped in and waited. then waited some more then the plane moved a bit then stopped, The trolly dolly came and asked us do we want a coffee or tea, I asked we stopped. she explained the wings have got frozen so they need a squirt of deicer on them and we chatted nicly as a truck sprayed the wings,
any road the plane went to the runway and took off, as it took off, It spun sideways, left to right left to right and shuddered forwards backwards and every which way there was, like a ship on the sea in a force 9, Without a seatbelt on we'd be dead, This continued for a good 20 mins then it calmed down as we got above the storm, The trolly dolly came and offed us a coffee and said, please drink it quick because, we are going dorn to St John in Newfoundland to pick up there and it will get ' bumpy'
It did and we had to land there and take off again as well,
an experience that frickened me but, the crew do it often,,

That would have terrified me the living daylights out of me, Tom. A Force 9 at sea is a doddle, compared to that. When living abroad we never flew home, always going by sea because we took the car with us, normally Hook of Holland to Harwich. A long journey up to Wigan from there so, one Christmas, we took the Rotterdam to Hull instead. A longer journey by sea, but a shorter road trip this end. It was very choppy, but nothing compared to that trip from NI that time.