I'm sitting here in the lounge writing this with a howling gale rampaging outside. Well, I hope it's outside. As usual, at this unearthly hour (4.10a.m) I have woken up and gone to the loo. I lay awake for a while, not just the sound of the wind, but a door (I presume it's a door) rattling somewhere. It probably needs shutting properly, but it annoys me intensely. If it's in a downstairs flat, why can't someone just shut it, so that it stops it's relentless banging and rattling? Of course, that's too obvious. I won't go on about it, but it keeps me awake. I decide to make myself a cup of tea. I sometimes do the washing up from the previous evening's meal, but I did it last evening and the kitchen is spotless, the sink cleaned as well as the work surfaces. I make the cup of tea and then go through to the lounge and put on the television. The BBC news channel has a piece on a team of scientists going to either the Artic or Antarctic and doing research on a major glacier and drilling a hole through around a couple of miles of ice (I think it's a couple of miles, but it may be less.) The BBC sent their science correspondent (I forget his name.) to cover the story. They have to use hot water to help drill a hole in the ice and eventually they send a sort of robotic submarine down, fitted with a camera, to take video of the underside of the ice, and to see how much it's melting, something never before seen by human eyes and the ice has taken millennia to develop.
The gale is called Ciara. Is it male or female? I won't get into the gender argument, but whatever it is, it sounds very bad tempered. It's a she. I've done a Google search.
It's some time later (5.56, as I look at my digital watch.) The wind continues to howl, but I can't hear the door downstairs rattling. Perhaps someone had had the sense to close it, but I doubt it. I don't think the wind has dropped. What sort of damage has it caused? I will find out when I take Alfie out at around 7.15.
Watching BBC Breakfast this morning, could someone explain why the BBC insists on sending reporters to places being hit by storms, and then standing in really dangerous places, such as near the sea shore, where there are crashing waves, which are very likely to swamp them, or, in other times, standing up to their knees in flood water, or at the side of a motorway, where there is snow and ice, again, putting their lives at risk? It's not just the reporters who are endangered, but there must be cameramen, sound operators and production staff, unseen by the viewer and off-camera, who make up a unit to bring these live pictures to the viewer. What on earth do these reports add to the situation? Nothing much, and if the BBC wants to cut costs, why not just report within a warm and comfortable studio and have photographs and video to back up the report? It's a similar report if they are doing something about the Royal Family, why do they need to have a reporter outside Buckingham Palace? Again, it doesn't really add a thing to the reporting of a particular story.
I've been out and the wind is still strong. As we walked along Strudwick Drive, I saw a police car draw up near the carpark entrance to The Cricketers public house. A cab was parked nearby. I have no idea why it was here, possibly just checking things out and nothing to do with a criminal act of any sort, but I just wondered what it was about. You rarely see a policeman or even a police car around the estate, so it just makes me wonder.
I went to church this morning, and when I got home I thought that Alfie would want to go out. Well, being cooped up for so long (actually not that long) there would be a definite necessity. He makes such a noise whenever I prepare to take him out, especially when I put his lead on. We got outside and I realised it was raining, although only slightly. We got round the corner from Dexter House and into Strudwick Drive, allowing him the opportunity to have a wee on the grass, but, instead of walking off towards Oldbrook Green, he took me in the opposite direction and back to the flat. He just does not like getting wet and couldn't wait to get back to the warmth of he sofa and, as I write this (at 12.40) he is tucked up on his blanket and fast asleep!
Later. 7.00p.m. The wind has dropped, but not entirely. I took out Alfie for a final walk at around 4.30, but he wasn't keen to stay out too long because even then it was windy, but he was quite keen to get back to the warmth of the flat and as I write this now he's sleep once again on the sofa.
Monday Morning. 6.50 a.m. Well, thankfully the wind has dropped. As I write this, I haven't been out with Alfie, but I'm due to take him out at around 7.10 a.m. Watching BBC Breakfast, which is on as I write this, they're showing the amount of damage caused by the wind and there's a Yellow weather-warning, meaning that there's more bad weather on the way. I expect there's likely to be more destruction when I go outside.
Later. I have now come back from taking Alfie out for his early-morning walk. Definitely a good deal calmer. Apparently there was around 6 weeks of rain falling across the country. The BBC are again having reporters standing next to flooded rivers and streams. They were in Hebden Bridge, somewhere Carol and I probably drove through when we went on holiday in Yorkshire. It's the second time this community has been flooded, even with flood protection put in place.
There was a large moon when we went out. It looked like a huge penny in the sky and then it got engulfed by a cloud and it looked somewhat artificial, a bit like C.G.I. in a film. It seemed to disappear really rapidly.
The gale is called Ciara. Is it male or female? I won't get into the gender argument, but whatever it is, it sounds very bad tempered. It's a she. I've done a Google search.
It's some time later (5.56, as I look at my digital watch.) The wind continues to howl, but I can't hear the door downstairs rattling. Perhaps someone had had the sense to close it, but I doubt it. I don't think the wind has dropped. What sort of damage has it caused? I will find out when I take Alfie out at around 7.15.
Watching BBC Breakfast this morning, could someone explain why the BBC insists on sending reporters to places being hit by storms, and then standing in really dangerous places, such as near the sea shore, where there are crashing waves, which are very likely to swamp them, or, in other times, standing up to their knees in flood water, or at the side of a motorway, where there is snow and ice, again, putting their lives at risk? It's not just the reporters who are endangered, but there must be cameramen, sound operators and production staff, unseen by the viewer and off-camera, who make up a unit to bring these live pictures to the viewer. What on earth do these reports add to the situation? Nothing much, and if the BBC wants to cut costs, why not just report within a warm and comfortable studio and have photographs and video to back up the report? It's a similar report if they are doing something about the Royal Family, why do they need to have a reporter outside Buckingham Palace? Again, it doesn't really add a thing to the reporting of a particular story.
I've been out and the wind is still strong. As we walked along Strudwick Drive, I saw a police car draw up near the carpark entrance to The Cricketers public house. A cab was parked nearby. I have no idea why it was here, possibly just checking things out and nothing to do with a criminal act of any sort, but I just wondered what it was about. You rarely see a policeman or even a police car around the estate, so it just makes me wonder.
I went to church this morning, and when I got home I thought that Alfie would want to go out. Well, being cooped up for so long (actually not that long) there would be a definite necessity. He makes such a noise whenever I prepare to take him out, especially when I put his lead on. We got outside and I realised it was raining, although only slightly. We got round the corner from Dexter House and into Strudwick Drive, allowing him the opportunity to have a wee on the grass, but, instead of walking off towards Oldbrook Green, he took me in the opposite direction and back to the flat. He just does not like getting wet and couldn't wait to get back to the warmth of he sofa and, as I write this (at 12.40) he is tucked up on his blanket and fast asleep!
Later. 7.00p.m. The wind has dropped, but not entirely. I took out Alfie for a final walk at around 4.30, but he wasn't keen to stay out too long because even then it was windy, but he was quite keen to get back to the warmth of the flat and as I write this now he's sleep once again on the sofa.
Monday Morning. 6.50 a.m. Well, thankfully the wind has dropped. As I write this, I haven't been out with Alfie, but I'm due to take him out at around 7.10 a.m. Watching BBC Breakfast, which is on as I write this, they're showing the amount of damage caused by the wind and there's a Yellow weather-warning, meaning that there's more bad weather on the way. I expect there's likely to be more destruction when I go outside.
Later. I have now come back from taking Alfie out for his early-morning walk. Definitely a good deal calmer. Apparently there was around 6 weeks of rain falling across the country. The BBC are again having reporters standing next to flooded rivers and streams. They were in Hebden Bridge, somewhere Carol and I probably drove through when we went on holiday in Yorkshire. It's the second time this community has been flooded, even with flood protection put in place.
There was a large moon when we went out. It looked like a huge penny in the sky and then it got engulfed by a cloud and it looked somewhat artificial, a bit like C.G.I. in a film. It seemed to disappear really rapidly.
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