So, my first totally weather related post, and actually the result of a trawl around the interweb yesterday. I found the SATREP site which is rather funky. Nice website which combines the joy of infra-red satellite imagery with surface fronts, ridges, troughs, the works. It's quite clever.

And here's an example:

Comma clouds, instant occlusions, jet axes, the works. Of course, the trick is to be able to recognise all of these features on any satellite picture. And if you can do that then you are a true friend of the clouds.

Wow - what a day! Really. Cos I moved to the south west in January and have had to endure weeks without any decent radio reception. Now, I'm a huge fan of radio so to not have any radio at all really bugged me. But there is an answer, and it is this:

YES! It's an internet radio. It connects wirelessly my the router and now I can listen to internet radio stations from, well, anywhere where they've got an internet. I started off gently and tried Radio 4 LW (for the shipping forecast) then ventured further and got to Frenchy FM - a French station which plays only French music. Tres bon. And then I went mad and went to Norway, where they play too many English songs and not enough a-ha. Then I went to Japan and heard some techno, went to Australia and heard a rubbish poet on a night-time show, then found the United States weather radio channel. Bliss!

But the best radio I found was in New Zealand, where they have

Perfection.

I've just been to London for a few days. Had a lovely time meeting up with some people I haven't seen for a while. Plus there was all sorts of drama... but more of that later.

Firstly, WTF are they thinking. I was in a pub in Putney and for some reason they have this on the wall:

Now, I'm all for art in public places but a painting if a dog's willy is not really what I want to see when I'm eating/drinking/awake.

Don't worry though - this was a pub and after a while everyone was drunk enough to forget about the dog and to take part in a game of 'stack things up on the table'.

That's red sauce at the bottom, mustard and salt (or pepper). Who needs jenga!

Anyway, having had a lovely afternoon and evening, the next day I had a few hours to kill so my mate Louise and I went to the Science Museum (to look at the weather section which is good but far too small) and then to the Natural History Museum.... WHERE I NEARLY DIED! It's true. I was on the escalator, ascending to the stars, when there was a huge grinding, crunching and metal screeching noise. And then the escalator stopped suddenly. Turned out that the step at the top had sort of come loose or something... not what you want to see. I had to hop over the top step to avoid falling.. ooo. ... several feet to the floor. Eeeeek. Still, they had a spinning coffee table which demonstrates the Coriolis effect at the top so it was worth it.

And finally, to kill a bit of time, I walked from Liverpool Street station to Waterloo, via:

So there you go. Back home now and enjoying this Easter weekend. Still makes me laugh that we have a holiday to celebrate the day Jesus hatched out of a chocolate egg...

Apparently i can update my blog using an email from my phone. And as i'm bored on the world's funniest commute i thought i'd give it a go!

UPDATE:

Amazing, that did work. I can blog from wherever I am. I'm actually pretty impressed by that. I can be a roving reporter like John Simpson or Kate Adie.

But anyway - as I was saying up there I had the funniest commute in the world this morning. It was travel chaos and I loved every minute of it.

First of all the wind in my face as I cycled to the station was brilliant fun. Even the rain couldn't ruin it. I was peddling forward but going backward. I think the wind even blew the saliva out of my mouth at one point. Euw!

So then I got to Chelmsford Station only to discover travel chaos again. Trees on power lines, blockages on level crossings and someone who had 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' as a ringtone going off every few minutes.

The announcement halfway through the journey that I should consider not travelling today was pretty funny too, especially as they'd just said that there were no trains going back home anyway.

And the bunch of schoolgirls who got on the wrong train and accidentally went to Stratford, no way of getting back, so decided to go to the cinema. Hope they had fun.

But I gather other people had it worse though: BBC Story

Will I have more fun commuting fun on the way home?

Before I start I'd like to clarify something. I will be talking about bluetooth today. That's bluetooth, not blue tongue, which is what farm animals get from flying bugs. Don't confuse the two or you'll be looking for wireless enabled cows, digital sheep and other nightmare creatures.

My train was a bit running late this morning so I was fiddling with my phone and decided to see what this Bluetooth nonsense was about. I turned it on and it did a scan to see what other bluetooth devices were nearby - and found loads of other people's mobile phones. And the funny bit is it listed what people call their phones - the best two were 'Borskys Dog' and 'Mr Fit'.

And just so you know, I did have a look around for Mr Fit but couldn't see him. I reckon someone nicked his phone. Or he's a liar and actually Mr Not Really Fit But Has A Big Ego. Or maybe he's actually fit in the old sense of the word, he can run miles, do press-ups etc. Hmmm.

Moral of the story: don't leave your bluetooth on. Or name your phone something stupid. Or both.

I'm writing today to warn you all of the dangers of drugs. Drugs are bad and evil and nasty and shouldn't be messed about with. I myself have some experience of this - just this morning I woke up with what is jokingly refered to as a 'cold' but which is actually something far more serious - because I am a sufferer of the dreaded man-flu.

So I decided to take some lemsip - because they really are very good you know, seriously, and I'm told they are more effective than the supermarket own-brand generic products because of the placebo effect! Problem is of course that I think there is caffeine in these things. Caffeine makes me feel unusual at the best of times, but when my resistance is down because of my illness, well, I end up talking total clap-trap!

So there you go - take a lemsip if you like but don't blame me if you end up pledging allegiance to a different weatherman that your ususal choice! You have been warned!

I was travelling to work this morning on the DLR - that's the Docklands Light Railway for anyone who doesn't know and was surprised to see a man wearng a bowler hat.

Now, if he'd been on a train going to the City, then maybe. But he was on a train going to Beckton. They eat people in bowler hats in Beckton. Not a wise move by him then...

Important - do not confuse a bowler hat:

with a bowler soup:

After weeks of deliberating I have finally decided I'm going to blog about stuff and things, that which catches my interest or impresses me in some way, shape or form. (N.B. There will be a slight skew towards meteorological stuff though as I am currently in love with a cloud).

So, what impressed me recently? This did:

WOW! Coffee and chocolate and cream all in one cup. What were they thinking, that I needed fattening up for winter? Still, the sugar and caffeine gave me a heck of a buzz, so much so that I went out and bought a cardigan. Imagine that!

And now to my first weather report - this morning it rained. Possibly this is connected to the low pressure swirling around over the UK but more likely it's because Carol Kirkwood, the rain goddess, was on telly this morning.

Here's some rain:

Here I am, a man with a blog but with no idea of what to do with it. So I've decided I'm just going to write about anything I want to with no grand scheme or plan or theme!

Today I'm having a nice day, in spite of waking up at 4 a.m., then 5 a.m. and then 6 a.m. As the great Alf Stewart might say, flamin' Nora. God knows what's going on with my body clock. That's four days in a row of not sleeping properly - I reckon I'm now about eight hours behind with my sleep.

So there you go. My first blog entry. Not too exciting but I'll need a few days to get into this properly. So in the meantime, here's a picture to keep you entertained!

I've gone and got me a blog! WTF am I going to do with this thing?