Mr George writes...

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...