What on Earth's going on with our weather?

I haven't written very much about the weather here in the UK. I haven't really needed to. It is always in the news and in the press. We often have bad weather here in the UK. It often rains and it is often windy - it is Winter after all. But I can't be alone in thinking that the last few months have been pretty extreme. Late last year, we saw flooding on the East Coast of England. There was significant damage to coastal defences and much of the damage remains, awaiting repair and will remain so due to lack of funds.

The combination of heavy rain, high tides and strong winds has resulted in significant flooding across large parts of the UK especially in Somerset and with further rain forecast, there is little hope of the area returning to 'normal'. There is huge criticism aimed at the government for having done too little too late and many blame the Environment Agency for the state of the rivers and lack of dredging that has contributed to the flooding

Today we have seen yet another severe storm which has caused damage to sea defences along the south and west coast. The train line from Paddington to Penzance has been damaged at Dawlish in Devon where the sea wall and track bed has been washed away by powerful waves. I know this stretch of line very well. I've even modelled it and consider it to be one of the most picturesque stretches of railway in the UK.

We've had severe weather before. We've had large waves before, but this time it is different. Never before has this much damage been caused. The bill for repairing the line will be enormous and it will be closed for weeks and possibly months to come. It will need a lot of money and a lot of engineering expertise to repair the line and to make the whole coastal stretch safe for trains once more.
As I write this, I hear that residents in Somerset are being evacuated due to rising flood water. There are currently 8 severe flood warnings and thousands are without power.
I hear so many who maintain that the weather is 'normal' for this time of year, but I'm afraid I can't agree. You really don't need to be an expert to see that weather like this, so damaging and so prolonged, isn't normal. I daresay that in six months from now, we'll be complaining that it's too hot and that we're heading for drought...

Getting My Throat Back...

My goodness, I've been poorly this last week and today is the first time I've felt able to write anything. My son had been suffering for some time with a cold he'd picked up from school. Schools are a breeding ground for all kinds of illness and there really isn't one week that passes when at least one member of his class isn't poorly. I normally do quite well by avoiding colds and viruses, in fact it's been over a year since I've had anything significant. Wherever this particular virus came from, it had my name on it and a payload designed to incapacitate. I don't think I've ever actually felt so ill. I knew I was coming down with something a week ago. It's that feeling you get that tells you a cold is on its way, or that precursor to a sore throat. Within a couple of days, it had properly hit but went straight for my throat rather than start in the nose or the chest. I'd wake feeling as though I'd swallowed a handful of razor blades, and so this continued all week. Unable to swallow, I've certainly lost some weight, which isn't a bad thing I suppose.
As it hadn't cleared by Friday, I made myself an appointment and popped along to the health centre to be told what I already knew, that I had a temperature and a chest infection. Amoxcillin was prescribed and plenty of fluids. It's certainly working. My throat is almost back to normal but I do have a chesty cough. But it does seem to be on the way out, thank goodness.

A busy week ahead (for me). Tomorrow I have some NHS training to attend in North Hykeham. I'm taking with me another support team volunteer as she doesn't drive so I'll need to collect her en-route from Spalding. I checked the route on Google Maps and it dawned on me how far we'll need to travel. It's a 120 mile round trip in total and I just hope the weather will be better tomorrow than it is right now.
I will attempt to write-up the training session and add to my website where I now have a small section on Health.

We've seen more flooding across the UK, most notably in Wales where rivers have breached their banks causing many thousands of pounds worth of damage. This morning there are reports of flooding in Sussex and frankly if this persistent rain doesn't stop, I see this being repeated here. I'm really getting fed up with writing about the weather. It is just so bad at the moment and so changeable. I know people for whom weather like this can make all the difference between getting up and about or staying in bed. It affects their mood greatly. I did pop out briefly to get a top-up voucher for my mobile and to drop off a pair of ear plugs I'd promised to a member of our group last week. He suffers with broken sleep due to noisy neighbours so I've recommended he use them. For the short time I was out, I got soaked so was glad to get back home in the dry.

I have a couple of computers to work on this week, from the same customer. One of them is a laptop, the same laptop I'd repaired a few weeks ago replacing the keyboard. This time, the laptop has been dropped and has a fault as a result. It'll need stripping down to find out what has become dislodged. The other is just a general tune-up.
I've also been asked to provide some basic computer tuition, but I am struggling with this as the person I will be teaching has absolutely no skills or knowledge, but is at the same time and expert when it comes to his own computer and the Internet, despite the fact he's not even connected(!) I just know this is going to be difficult and I wonder how my sanity will hold-up. I have for now managed to put him off due to my 'man-flu' but I just know I will have to bite the bullet at some point...

Still the Rain Falls - Mid-Week Update

It is still raining and there is no sign of it letting-up, except for a brief glimpse of the sun now and then. It is raining as I type this. Everything I can use as a container in the garden is now full of rainwater. My water butt is overflowing and as soon as I empty something to water my plants, it fills straight back up again. I'm by no means moaning, but I do find it slightly ironic given the fact that it wasn't so many days ago that we were beginning to panic and worry about water restrictions and a prolonged drought.

I have spent a worrying amount of time following the Levison Enquiry on TV. They have been questioning James and Rupert Murdoch in light of the phone hacking scandal and press ethics. One advantage of being a 'stay at home' dad is that I get to watch things like this. Though to be honest, if I was at work, I would be stealing myself away to watch TV via the Internet. I do find these things fascinating and I am grateful we live in an open society where these things are public. It wasn't so long ago that inquiries such as this would have been conducted behind closed doors.

I have a little job. My mother-in-law is giving me a laptop to repair. It belongs to one of her work colleagues and it sounds as if the keyboard has become damaged as some of the keys have stopped working. I'm pretty confident I'll be able to fix it. I'll remove the keyboard and remove any liquids and give it a thoroughly good clean. I do enjoy things like that, fixing faults and getting things working again. It was pretty much all I did with my little company a few years ago. The problem was two fold - I didn't charge enough and what I did charge, people didn't want to pay. So in the end, it was costing me money so I had to stop doing it. Shame really as I did enjoy working for myself.

My father had his dressings removed from his face and neck on Monday. He also received the 'all clear' meaning they had removed everything they needed to. He has been told to exercise extreme care from now on and told that on no account should he spend any time in direct sunlight. This is a shock. He loves the sun and always has, perhaps a little too much. He spends all of his spare time in his garden and it shows. Nothing will change this, but he must heed advice and cover up. He's had a scare, we all have, and he must follow the advice he has been given.

My wife is at home today. She woke up feeling poorly and I called her boss to let her know this morning. It's quite unusual for my wife to have any time off work. She's normally very healthy, despite suffering with Asthma. Tiredness is perhaps her main problem, which is no wonder given the hours each week she spends on her feet. She seldom ever gets time for lunch or even a coffee break. It's rather odd to have her at home. I am conscious of her being here and I do feel a little as if I'm under her watchful gaze, eager to know what I get up to when she's not about. The truth is, I actually get up to very little. I try to keep to a routine - breakfast, job hunt, lunch etc. I've pretty much kept to this routine punctuated by frequent checks to see how my wife is feeling and whether I can bring her a cup of tea.

I have given some thought as to whether I can sustain both a written and spoken blog. The truth is that I do find the addition of a daily audio journal very difficult to maintain and wonder whether a weekly version would be more appropriate. The main problem is committing to a regular schedule of recording the journal, particularly when I need to take about 10-15 minutes out of each day alone with my recorder. This is frequently easier said than done. A written journal provides the ability to record my thoughts more easily I feel and without the same level of fuss.

I have a joke. I don't take the credit for it as I stumbled across it on Twitter. It goes like this;
'I bought a dog from an Ironmonger the other day. As soon as I got it home, it made a bolt for the door. '

I'll get my coat...

April Showers

My goodness, how quickly the weather can change. It's sod's law that as soon as we have a hosepipe ban, it rains. It had rained pretty much constantly  the last week. We have a drought and reservoirs are less than half-full. Though despite the heavy rain, we are told we need at least three month's continuous rain before reserves can return to anything near normal. So, I continue to catch as much rainwater as I can. My water butt is full and every bucket and vessel large enough is in the garden catching rainfall. I've even applied for a free water saving kit and entered a competition for a free water butt with Anglian Water. They're giving away 5,000 apparently.

I've begun recording an audio blog.  It's something I've wanted to do for some time and I'm hoping it will provide a daily journal of sorts in addition to my written musings.  I had originally planned to use Podbean but discovered after a few postings that there is a monthly usage limit of 100mb, which is frankly useless. So I've decided to use my own site at pcknowledge.co.uk
I've been trying to do something practical with the site as I've done nothing with it for years, despite paying for the ownership and hosting. I'm no expert on websites and I suppose it should be full of stuff computer-related, but to be honest, I could never fully commit myself to keeping it maintained. So I expect it will just be kept as a personal site for now. That is of course unless I get a good offer for it :-)
I will certainly continue to write about my experiences of depression and how it affects me on a daily basis. I already write openly via this blog and will continue to do so, but I wonder if I might dedicate a small section of my site to the subject.

I've lamented previously on the loss of analogue TV across the UK in favor of crisp clean digital. Last week saw London make the switch to digital and the conversion of the Crystal Palace transmitter. This has a level of significance for me as I used to live in South London, under the gaze of the Crystal Palace transmitter, and I recall with fondness the hours spent tuning my TV and the attempts to obtain a good picture. Quite often I would fiddle about until I got a good picture on ITV only to find that the BBC channels were covered in 'snow' or 'ghosting'. Although there are many who question why the switch to digital was made, it is clear the conversion has gone extremely well. The advantages are obvious to anyone who takes an interest in this sort of thing and the increased number of channels provide a level of choice previously impossible under analogue.

The Bahrain Grand Prix has been in the news this last week. There have been calls for the race to be canceled due to criticism of the government and its treatment of protesters and opposition groups. It is clear to me that given the evidence appearing on the Internet, the government are certainly guilty of using extreme measures to control and put down any attempts at protest and this should rightly be condemned. It is also my opinion that the race should be canceled as a sign of our disapproval. Unfortunately though, where there is money to be made, justice and liberty take second place and as our own government have so much invested in this dictatorship, I suspect nothing will be done apart from the odd low-level rebuke.

I am worried about my father. He has recently had several moles removed from his body including his face and is due to have some stitches removed tomorrow. The hospital have been sufficiently concerned to remove anything they consider to be suspect and this has frankly left him resembling the victim of a road accident. I was quite shocked to see the dressings do find myself worrying as to whether this may be the prelude to something more serious. I am more convinced than ever that years spent gardening and working on his allotment in blazing sunshine has been the root cause and that the presence of moles has provided the environment for cancer cells to develop. This is a dreadful lesson and one that isn't sadly learned early enough. It is only when it is too late that the lesson is learned and it serves as a reminder that what we do in our former years can have a significant and sometimes devastating effect later on. I am hopeful that everything has been caught and removed in good time, but I know my father. He will not make a fuss if he feels unwell. He very rarely discusses his health and if there was something more seriously wrong, I fear he wouldn't mention it, not even to my mum. This worries me deeply.

Sunny Sunday Roundup

As I write this, the sun is out, the sky is blue and the birds are chirping in the garden. It's a perfect Spring day. We're told this weather is set to continue for some time to come, and there is no significant rain  predicted in both the medium and long range forecasts. Whilst this early Spring may be a good thing for many, the lack of rain in recent months is beginning to have very serious effects for farmers and the production of vegetables. This in turn affects livestock which then pushes up the price of food reaching our supermarkets. Unless we have prolonged heavy rainfall in the next couple of months, this Summer is going to be tough, very tough for many people. There is already talk about water conservation and we could learn an enormous amount from the normal day to day habits of those living in Western Australia for whom drought is a permanent feature of their lives. I for one have begun looking at the water that simply gets thrown away down the drain every day. We waste an enormous amount, most of which can be re-used particularly in the garden.

As if on cue, the good weather always brings out what I perceive to be the worst of society, the idiots and their fast cars, the angry teenagers (and their cars) and the inappropriately dressed - particularly scantly clad teenage girls and grown men in ill fitting shorts and nothing else. In tandem, I also see an increase in mindless littering, the discarded McDonalds containers strewn all over the road, particularly in and around Long Sutton. I witnessed for myself today in Wisbech a passenger tipping their rubbish out onto the road before driving off, in full view of other motorists at a junction. Yes sadly, though the weather is all very nice, I do hate to see this element of our society emerge from their Winter hibernation.

Fuel cost have leapt to an all time high with a litre of petrol locally costing £1.45, a ridiculous amount and a trend that simply cannot be sustained. Unrelated to the cost of fuel, there is impending industrial action taking place by tanker drivers which will affect the supply of fuel to stations around the UK. We read in the news that the army are being trained to deliver fuel in their place in the hope that supplies can be maintained. I think though it is inevitable that some parts of the country will run dry with major queues developing at others.  Any escalation in the Middle East will further increase the price at the pump and restrict supplies with devastating effects for everything we rely and depend on.

Yesterday, many awoke to the news of yet another accident involving a coach. This time it was here in the UK on the M5 motorway and involved a lorry and bus. The accident had occurred in heavy fog when the bus broke down blocking the inside lane. Though details are far from confirmed, we do know that the bus was stationary and was poorly lit, its hazard lights barely visible. One passenger and today the driver of the lorry lost their lives. This is tragic and a needless loss of life. The bus driver has been arrested in suspicion of dangerous driving and it is clear to me that fundamental mistakes were made. My own Passenger Carrying Vehicle training tells me this. Firstly the bus was poorly lit. Though the hazard lights were on, there were no fog lights. Bus lights are notoriously poor, particularly on older vehicles. There was never much importance given to making the vehicle visible though nowadays, there is much greater emphasis by using LED's and lighting strips at varying levels. One thing is for certain, the driver of the lorry would not have seen the bus until it was too late. The other mistake was to leave the passengers seated. As the bus had stopped in the first lane of the motorway, it would not be possible to evacuate the passengers safely to the high verge and away from danger. Instead in this situation, the driver should ensure that all passengers move to the front of the vehicle, the safest place to be in the event of a rear end collision. As far as I know, this was not done and resulted in the death of a passenger. More details will emerge over the coming days, but for me, it is easy to understand how this tragedy occurred. A further tragedy would be to learn nothing from it and apply any lessons learnt to current and future vehicle safety and design.

I was going to finish on the subject of Saturday night telly, but I thought better of it. Some love it and others hate it so at the risk of sparking a debate, I'll leave it there.

Storms and little black midges

After a couple of humid sultry days, it's now cooler damp and stormy. Also there are hundreds of little black midges everywhere. I hate them. Somehow they work their way into every crevice and I can even see the buggers crawling inside my computer screen! How the hell did they get in there?
As I type this, a storm is overhead. I'm half expecting the power to go off so I'm saving as often as I can. I do have a big generator in the garden. It's big enough to power the house but the battery's dead. My wife tells me we don't have the money for a new one. The thunder is getting heavier and it's raining heavily. Little man will be inside this afternoon at big school. No field games today I'm afraid...

Lightning Detector

Serbian justice, rain and my brave little soldier

It's good to see that Ratko Mladic has finally been caught and will soon be brought to justice. The deaths this man is responsible for is incalculable and it's difficult to know what sort of punishment would be suitable. This person committed mass genocide and comparison can definitely be made with the atrocities of the Second World War. I recall the period well and the feeling of utter helplessness as day after day we were served the horrific images of senseless violence and death on our TV screens. This was happening on our doorstep, in Serbia, in Europe and it can be argued that we along with the rest of Europe and the US did very little to stop it. I believe it is a period in our recent history that we should be ashamed of but as to what is done with the perpetrators, I cannot say. It will have to be left up to the Hague though I doubt very much whether anything they do will even begin to placate those who lost sons, brothers, mothers and sisters back in 1995.

I see we have rain, and lots of it. It's actually quite welcome and for the first time in ages, the car looks quite clean. I've just returned from collecting my son from playschool and a visit to the local health center. He needed his pre-school boosters and I really wasn't looking forward to it at all knowing he was going to have two injections. I actually felt more nervous than he did. When it came to it, he actually coped with it a lot better than I thought he would. I was expecting tears but he didn't shed one, instead he just said 'ouch' as each needle entered his arm. The nurse was impressed too and gave him two stickers for being brave. As a treat for being a little soldier, we bought him a McDonald's for his dinner.

This evening, my wife and I are off to see our son's new school. He starts there properly in September. The school as I've mentioned previously is practically next door so we don't have to go far at all. It'll feel quite odd visiting a school as a parent. I recall my parents coming to see my new school many years ago, looking at displays of projects, chemistry experiments and physical education. It didn't mean much to me back then - it just all looked a bit scary and I know I didn't look forward to it at all. The opposite is true of my son - he's quite excited and looking forward to going to 'big school'. What will certainly help is the fact it's a fairly small school with less than fifty children. I hope to find out a lot more later this evening. I'll be interested in the teaching techniques that are used - not just a chalkboard or text books as it was in my day - but computers and interactive tools. Above all, I would wish for my son to feel comfortable and at ease with his new environment but I should get a feel for that later on.

The weather we're having at the moment is quite lively. I like the weather to 'do something'. I can't stand all that boring grey stuff we're so famous for. We certainly need the rain but I wouldn't have thought a few heavy showers will make much of a difference to water levels in our reservoirs.  I did find out earlier that the model railway cabin I spend much of my time in has a leak. It's always leaked down the walls due to the roof not fitting the walls properly but this time rainwater was dripping from the ceiling directly above the small village I have been creating. I don't think it will be a simple job to fix. The whole roof really needs sealing properly.
Today I started work on terraforming a small hillock which will eventually hold the other end of a viaduct I'm adding to take a line above the village I'm building below. It's quite an ambitious plan though I'm quite confident of success. I'll try to take some photos tomorrow or Saturday and upload them.

Again, I felt I had little to write about and manage to produce a small novel. I hope it hasn't been too boring but I do like to record a little of what I get up to day to day.

Oh, must mention soon about my brother-in-law. He's in hospital with appendicitis, poor chap.

Rain and pizza

We had the first significant rain today. It was quite welcome here by the Wash. It can rain half a mile down the road and we can miss it completely. We seem to have our own mini weather system here. At least the car got a wash...
I didn't hear back from the teaching agency I contacted yesterday - I suppose it's too early. I'll give them until the end of the week and then chase. I'm signing-on again tomorrow so at least I can tell them I've applied.
Pizza tonight - it's the real thing. Asda let you make your own and it has a thin base, just the way pizza should be. The best pizza I've ever had was in Yugoslavia, many years ago. It was thin and big - really big. I haven't found one to beat it but I've got close.
The government here today announced that they are re-vamping the disability assessment process. Up to now, it has been a complete sham. I remember being assessed myself by some untrained 'medical assessor' who simply clicked at a checklist on a computer when I was signed-off work with severe depression. I was deemed 'fit for work' and had to then appeal the decision which induced further stress. I've read so many accounts from others who are severely disabled enduring the same treatment and having to appeal. Apparently last year, there were more than 300,000 appeals. Disgusting. But that's how this country is I'm afraid - an I fear it's getting worse.
Hey ho, that's life I suppose... It seems if there's anything wrong with you, you suffer.