They called it Wii

The latest computer games system, the Nintendo Wii.
For those of you that don't get the joke, going for a wee is going to the toilet, or in Scotland, being small.
They missed a trick though. You control the on screen character by waving a "wand" around. Where is the Star Wars game? All together now "Hmmmmmmm-Wooosh. You're not my father!"
Sry, been an odd sort of day. My ipod is playing dead - apparently it's "sad" - after a random drinking night on Monday in the mess and the work conversation has just been on interactions in cars. My car has a screen that displays "hello happy" when you turn the engine on and "see you - good by" (sic) when you turn it off. So we were discussing cars that talk to you and I was remembering a joke about a SatNav voice program that gave instructions along the lines of "I meant the left we just passed" or "No! MY right!" I was wondering if such a program actually exists and if so why. You could of course program it to say "I think you should stop and ask for directions." but I'm guessing it wouldn't be very popular.

Friends in distress

Some of my friends, mainly Pippa, Pam and Alice, have all blogged that a friend of theirs, a lad called Michael Blakey was murdered in Dharmasala while working for the Tong-Len charity. I probably met him in Swansea but I'm afraid I can't remember him much. I do know that his death has been very hard on my friends. Not much I can say except that my thoughts and prayers are with them all.

On a somewhat different note, I was in Aberdeen yesterday finding out what they do. We may have to cover them at some point, so I have to learn to do civilian forecasting - much the same but with different change criteria. Ho hum. Then when I got back to the mess I had a quiet drink, which turned into a series of load drinks. Great time.

Another armpit of the night entry

Seems to be that the only time I can get online to blog is during a night shift. Ah well, ce la vie.

During a night shift I'm supposed to get some sleep, legally I'm required to take a break (during the day shifts we can sign off the break but we're not allowed to do that at night). As I'm still getting to grips with the forecasting I've decided that it'll be best to ensure that all the stuff I need to do is done and if I've got time I'll get some kip but as I've got 24 hours between shifts after a night shift (unless I'm on a double night of course) getting some extended sleep is not a challenge.
So, this shift it's not looking too difficult (more than usual anyway) so I'm doing the usual thing of getting the work done early and sticking something interesting on the TV. At the moment I've got the first series of "Spaced" on, although I might stick the radio on later. Such is life.

The most routine thing I have to do is that every hour I pop out and do an observation. It's a great night for it tonight, clear, cool, light winds. Saw a shooting star earlier. There's thunderstorm off the Pembroke coast and another about 50 miles north of the Outer Hebrides but that's about it except for the wind. There's a gradient wind (about 2000 ft) of 50 odd knots but the surface is about 6-15 knots.
As you can tell it's quiet and I'm bored. Which is GREAT!!! Being bored is wonderful. Means nowt is happening and no dangerous weather problems are happening.

I moved up north for a few reasons

This is one of them. I'm rather proud of this image. I took it while driving to Cairn Gorm to go walking (my first Munro - a hill over 3000 ft.) in the snow. Well, I'd stopped the car to get the photo, but ya'know. It was cold, it was windy, my backside only defrosted an hour after I'd got back in the car and I loved it.
The hill is about 4084 ft I think but I went up the easy route, only went up to my thighs in snow a couple of times.
On a night shift now (hence the post) and this one should be easier than the last shift - the comms failed and I had a 13 hour backlog of data that took until 2 am to clear beore I got the model products I needed, two hours before the first briefing.
There's a few more photos but I think that was the best one.
Well, true to my title, I'm a metman and I was up a mountain.

From work

I’m at work at the moment, sat at a desk working on a computer.

This is true of lots of people.

Many people have things in their work-place that make noises, such as photocopiers, people cleaning or talking loudly, that kind of thing; and telephone calls that disrupt what you’re trying to do. For me, sat at the keyboard 12 hours at a time (less quick breaks), the noises are generally the bombers taking off and the phone calls are usually pilots asking for information on the weather over targets. Also the guys at work are usually refereed to by nicknames, Misty just came in to borrow a disk, Millhouse is the room next door in the mess, Crazy Thom showed me around one of the squadrons and I’ve been refereed to as the “Mitch” or “Met-B!tch”, just because I’m the junior forecaster.

This is not true of lots of people.

I think there’s something different in the jobs that we do so that for each of us there is an amount of individuality. It could be the music that you listen to, your approach to the work that you do or the little extra bit of skill you have in the job that other don’t have or use.
Okay, I’ll admit it, I’m bragging a bit about the jets but come dusk when the light’s fading and the evening flights are taking off, there’s little that can match seeing the aircraft take off with the tongues of fire behind them.
True, getting the weather right more often would be nice. Not that I’m getting it wrong all that often, it’s just inhuman accuracy would be better.
Currently watching the sun set on the satellite images, you can tell because the visible image gets darker from the left and then goes black. There’s also the radar return as the rain comes up towards us and I’m thinking, “damn, should have brought a waterproof.” Oh well, good thing I’ve got the spare in the locker here.
Up here we use a series of webcams from around the country to give the pilots an idea of what’s happening in the areas they might be flying in. For example a picture of Eskdalemuir showing clear blue skies (rare) or one of Loch Glascarnoch showing snow on the hill tops and cloud covering the hills tells them what’s happening much more clearly than our words will. Most of the webcams that we use can be found at the Met Office Site although we’ve got a different page as a guide with some others like the Kyle of Lochalsh store 9-1-4 cam which shows a castle that some may recognise. Try the high res snapshot of the castle view.
Or the Cairngorm mountain cam and the Ben Nevis cam.
I’ve just been told that there used to be a “gnomeometer” based by the Glascarnoch cam that was used to record snow depth by remote monitoring. This highly respected piece of equipment consisted of a garden gnome, securely tied against the elements, with a calibrated measuring rod that could be used to tell how deep the snow was. Brilliant.

Plans for the next few hours/days: Call the mess and book a late meal. Watch the new Bond film before going on a night shift. Climb Cairngorm on Saturday (may be snowing, pack ice-axe). Listen to loud music.

On chairs and bombings.

Not at the same time, I was in the chair, other people were doing the "bombing."
Sat at work. Yay. Well, at least I've found which web sites I can access from the works net now. Classic FM is out, as is Bentley cars, but all of the BBC is fine, as is most of the rest of the net. We sit at the computers for pretty much 12 hours a day, except for trips outside to look at the weather (not something we HAVE to do, but it can help. Fortunately the office here have good screens and better seats than the last office but these are still not 24 hour seats. Almost, they've got decent adjustment but not as good as others I've used. Yeah, thinking about chairs occupies quite alot of the day, after all, we're shinies (sat down so much the backside of your trousers gets shiney.) so sitting down alot and your arse gets more than its fair share of use.
Anyway, on to the more interesting part of the day (I know, chairs and arses, can it get any better?!) Yesterday I spent the day with one of the squadrons here on camp. All the way from Met brief in the morning through planning (lots of restricted and above stuff - thank God for clearance) out to the line with the crew, watching the plane getting prepped (damn it was cold) then hanging with another crew while they went through night planning and the first crew were off "bombing" one site and then strafing another. When they got back we went through the de-brief and then watching the highlights of the cameras from the bomber. Was REALLY cool (okay chilly on the line). Learnt alot about the process of planning the mission and what they need from us, or at least more of it.
Turns out we, as MoD civil servants, can qualify for AT (adventure training) but I might need to take time off for it. Shucks, would I take time off in order to go on organised outdoors pursuits stuff for free? Ha!
Might try and go walking again this weekend. I'll see how it goes.

Again, backdated.

29/10/06
Clocks went forward today. No biggie, my alarm clock is self adjusting, but it means that time at work will be a bit tighter, we're now on GMT (or "Zulu") time. Makes things alot easier, you don't have to check which time people are on about, Zulu or local, but we loose an hour first thing. I do wish the government would stop using daylight savings time. I know most of the arguments, which mainly involve the increase in safety in the morning, when people are heading to work or school. To be honest, this will only work for a couple of weeks max, and people seem to be generally more awake in the morning than during the evening coming back from work or picking people up. Anyway, I digress.
Didn't have my alarm on this morning, I was planning on having a late morning and getting up around 11, having a late breakfast/early lunch and head out onto a hill before light levels dropped too far for comfort.
Unfortunately when I woke up the clock showed 12:40, which was too late for safety. Ahh well, there's always next week. Or this week on a night shift, although that would mean heading out about 10 in the morning. Hmm, might do that. Ahh, actually I've just remembered the charts for this week, Tuesday (I'm on a night then) is the only day I can do and the wind is looking a bit strong. Now, I've got the kit and the experience to walk in high winds alone, although I know it's more dangerous so would leave a route and timings with the mess reception, but it's looking like the winds will be into gale force and there's a good chance of snow. Again, not generally a problem, just need to carry the old axe and take more care, but I'd rather have a pair of crampons as well, and that's not possible until I get some debt cleared.
So I'll see how it turns out.

Aside from that, bought a printer from Tescos the other day (they stock everything except squash balls and chopsticks - aparently noone in Scotland uses chopsticks, I almost had to buy the silly costly collapsable titanium ones, but fortunately found a pack of 50 in Asda. Felt silly buying that many but at 50p it was okay, might even give some to Matt so he can snap them on his neck. Crazy Wing-Chun stuff.) mainly to run off some maps for the walk. It's not a brilliant printer but does everything I need and it costs less then Matt spent on print cartridges last time. Bloody silly economics that.

Adverts, some are good, some are terrible, a few are fantastic. My favourite one is "cog" the Honda one with all the bits of machinery. I also like the Honda "choir" and the one with the bloke going from his caravan on a variety of Honda things, culminating in going over a waterfall. Looks like fun. The Guiness ads are usually good, the horses was great (good use of Leftfield's Phat Planet as well as using quotes from Moby Dick) and the time running backwards was memorable. Sony are using a series of "Colours" ads, "Balls" was the one with loads of coloured balls falling in San Fransico and the new one has cannons and jets of coloured paints exploding all over a Glasgow council estate. The thing I like about Cog and the Sony ones is that they don't use computer graphics, they used real balls, real car parts (and about 617 takes) and real paint (and a two week clean up). Bonza.

Yes, I have been watching too much TV. Am now as it happens, it's episode 3 of Torchwood, a Doctor Who spin off. If you're interested Torchwood is an anagram of Doctor Who. It's not bad as such, just not as good as the build up and no way near as good as the Doctor Who series have been. But it's based in Cardiff and I know some of the parts of the city that they're using. If you know Cardiff, you'll know that the chase scene that they just had is physicall impossible, they just ran from the Castle to the train station (about 800 M) in under 3 seconds. Hah! I know the train station fairly well because I spent about 4 hours there one morning waiting for the 6:30 train home to Swansea. I'd been in Cardiff with seeing Tasha while she was at Uni. Phil had come down as well. This was in our fist year I think. After we'd finished at the club we'd gone back to Tasha's halls (girls only-very odd) and about half an hour later Tasha and Phil felt ill so were heading home. They dropped me at the station, but I'd missed the late night clubbers train back by about 40 minutes so had to wait for the next one. Tell you, you need to spend a morning in a train station, but if you can, make sure that the toilets aren't shut due to drug use, and the cafe and waiting rooms aren't closed for refurbishments. Waiting is much more fun with others, just down the road at Port Talbort (much worse station) was more fun. Mind you, Chris, Sally and Jo and myself had just been to a Levellers concert and we spent the three hours at the station running around like loons or sleeping against each other on the benchs.

A couple of back dated entries.

Pippa said that she hadn't seen an entry for a while and was getting worried. Been having problems connecting, I'm using my mobile so have to send over short times. Been keeping a few entries, so here they go...

18/09/06
Today I started at my new job in the north. So far so good. Looking for a place to live now, got a couple of numbers to ring so we'll see how it all goes.
Randomly, on the news just now, they're auditioning for hobbits in London, you have to be under 5'7" and they each had 30 seconds to impress the judges. Seemed a bit odd to tell you the truth.
Over the weekend, while traveling up here, I stopped over with Tasha and Chris in Alloa and we went out in Falkirk with some of their friends from work, so hi to Charl, Louise and their daughter Faith; Peter, Patrick, Nolan and his lass and the other lads that I'm ashamed to say I've forgotten their names. Was a great night. As I've thought, you can have a good night by being somewhere great or with great people, or spending LOTS of money. Didn't spend much that night, and I was the only Englishman, no Scottish either, just Poles and South Africans and Welsh. Tasha's English as well but didn't come out to the pub and club with us.
Right, anyway, I'm off to get some grub.

08/10/06

So, been a couple of weeks, stuff's happened and I'm in a different place now. I had a look at all of the flats/small houses/any place within my price band, and they were all "just been taken off the market" or "sorry, let that weeks ago." So I rang the place one of the guys from work recommended, apparently he'd been paying about £350 a month. Went round, the place was lovely but huge, with unbelievable views across the bay, but I was quoted a price of £300 a week for October and then it would go down to £190 a week. Now, I know it's been a while since I did any serious maths, but that's a bit more than £350 a month. So, I'm in the officer's mess. It's not as cheap as if I was a regular but it's still cheaper than a hotel, and includes scran. (That's food, for the Americans.)
So life in the mess, what's it like? I hear you cry. Go on, say it, it'll make me happy.
For those who went to Clyne, imagine Clyne but with brilliant food, a cheap bar (Single malts for 79p, pints for £1.30) and a bigger room. For those (the majority) that didn't go to Clyne, somewhere between a hostel and a 5 star hotel. The room is big, en-suite, and has quadrouple glazed - to keep out the noise (see later). There's a "batting" service, which is basically a cleaner, security isn't a problem, what with the armed guards on the gates and all. The rooms have aerial points and plenty of storage. The food is generally excellent, although I'm told that not all messes are as good. The fact that there's loads of aircrew around is an interesting one, I'm not an officer, even when (note, when not if - thinking positively) I get my rescommissionssion I'll only be partly an officer in the eyes of some of the regulars, but the ones I've met have been friendly enough. There's an odd feeling about fighter squadrons, I started to notice it at the last posting between the training and the fighter squadrons. It wouldn't be right to say that it's the "steely eyed killer" feeling, because it's not, but there's a certain focus to the place. The other thing is that there's more incentive to get to the gym and be fit. Not that anyone would say anything but when almost everyone around you is fit flight crew (not all air crew are fit, but most are) you feel out of place if you're not. Does help that the gym is two minutes from my door and work is about 12 minutes walk across the camp.
There are downsides, meals are at set times, although I can get food kept behind the bar if I'm on shift. There's restrictions on what you can wear and where you can wear it, in public rooms you should have proper shoes and a shirt with a collar, although this mess is somewhat more informal and you can get away with more. And there's the fire alarm. I've heard most of the fire alarms used on the open market and I'll usually wake up going "ahh, a fire alarm" but this is different. This is not "Wake up, there's a fire!" this is a three tone scream of "LOOK OUT, THERE'S A STOMACH EATING ALIEN INVADING THE SHIP!!! ALL THE LIFE PODS HAVE GONE AND THE GUNS ARE OUT OF AMMUNITION!!!!" kind of alarm. I honestly woke up with the words "what the ...." groggily coming out of my mouth. Turns out it was set off by the bloke down the corridor having a shower with the door open. Steam, not smoke. Bugger. The fact that there's jet aircraft taking off for most of the week until pasy midnight most days does make it somewhat noisy, but that's why there's two sets of double glazing. The prices of houses in the area has increases recently, mainly with people commuting to the cities down south, now that it's an hour's flying from Inverness or Aberdeen. I think that they must only show the houses on weekends when the Tonka's aren't flying, because there's no way that you'd convince someone of the "tranquility and pease of the north" with multi element takeoffs (ie two or more at once) happening in the background.
Almost on solo shifts as well, that'll be in a couple of weeks. *Gulp* I can do the job, just really need to get it right in this part of the world, the mountains make a huge difference to how the weather behaves.
Aside from that, two of my friends from uni are engaged (separately, not to each other) so congrats Pam and Alice, Pippa is moving back to Swansea, good for her and good luck.
Unfortunately, my mate Tris in London had his flat broken into and his kit got nicked. So if you're approached by a Londoner wanting to sell you dodgey stuff, punch him in the mouth, smash him in the kidneys and report him to the police. Makes me somewhat glad that there are armed guards on the gates here and effectively a conceirge service with the reception downstairs. Tris is one of the guys I've known the longest; and like Kev, Tash and a few others, if he called needing help I'd do everything in my power to get there and do what I can. Seems like to me, that's friendship, or at least one of the parts of it.

Selling out

I've got no problem selling out, in fact I'd like to do it more often. Anyway, in the quest to gain some extra geld I've thrown in my lot with Google ads, hence the adverts above. I'm not allowed to ask you to click on them to increase any funds that might come my way. Anyway, any complaints feel free to add a comment or seven.
On a completely unrelated note, I've been looking at iTunes and the play counter. The fact that it only adds a play count when the end of the track is played is a bit odd in my book, personally I'd look for more than 50% of the track being played and use that. But I'm not a programmer. It does mean that if I want to skip the track or there's a bit at the end that I don't listen to, band banter for example, if I don't want an unrepresentatively low score on the play count I have to pan the play slide to the very end, leaving about 2 seconds worth of the track.
Yes it's a minor thing but there's not that much going on in my world right now.
In the news, thinking about Google, they've asked journalists to always use the capitol G when writing the name and to refer to web searching as web searching, not "googling". As mentioned on the radio, you might think that this was an odd thing, as the prevalence of google in people's minds and as a term for searching would result in people only using google, not AltaVista, yahoo or whomever, and yeah, I only use AltaVista for searches that I know google will give duff results for, or if google has been "corrupted" by excess links to a particular site. The reasoning behind the Californian companies request is that if a word becomes so used to describe a generic thing or action, it looses it's copyright protection to a degree. Most people think of Hoover for this, as a brand name and as a verb, but escalator is a better example, as it was originally a brand name and has now come to be generic for all constructions of type. Personally I think they're peeing into the wind somewhat, the engine and it's impact on society is too great. I can remember using it in the late 90s at uni and it took one use to replace all non technical search engines as the tool of choice. Even my mum, who's 60 and just getting to grips with the net, uses google, or at least knows what it is and what it does.
Oddly enough though, the spell checker on Blogger didn't recognise any forms of google, but did know AltaVista. Then again, it doesn't recognise Blogger or the English spelling of recognise either.
Still waiting to see if I've passed my forecaster training. Should know today, tomorrow at the latest. Gulp.

Nimrod, the mighty hunter. Rest eternal grant unto them.

Wanted to post something on this, a RAF Nimrod went down in Afghanistan a couple of days ago, killing all 14 on board. I don't know anyone on the flight (although I was worried for a while) but my heart goes out to the families, friends and colleagues of those that died. Nimrod are intelligence gathering aircraft and fly at high altitude so the chance of it being shot down is slim.
Should we need to be there? No.
Are we needed there? Sorry, but I believe that yes, we are needed there. And until the job is done and we can leave in peace, we must remain there. This is the price of being a nation with a conscience and the ability to do something about what happens 4000 miles away to people we will (generally) never meet. This is part of the reason I go to work and do what I do.
Comments to the usual address.
Jim.

Nowt much going on, so time for a post

This week I completed another unit on my NVQ that I thought I already had completed (regarding team work), saw a film, drove a bit, went to Whitby (photos to follow) and remembered something about the Mountain Rescue Team (MRT) I went out with.
Damn I loved that weekend.
Ways to tell that your group is military and not a civilian MRT:
1. The group is kitted out with the best equipment, mostly new or much loved.
2. They take "Bergans" on a "Tab" rather than "Rucksacs" on a "walk"
3. The white Landrovers have "RAF XXXX Mountain Rescue" on the side (a subtle one that)
4. Most civilian groups, when faced with an idyllic country farmhouse and stone walls scene, don't turn to each other and say, "stick a GPMG [General Purpose Machine Gun] on that wall and you could hold that farm until the cows come home!"

There are other hints, but those seemed to be the main ones.

Aside from that, I've found that Coke are doing a free songs from iTunes promotion, so with the occassional diet coke I've been taking advantage of this. Unfortunately there's a limit of 5 songs per person, which sucks somewhat considering that Kev told me when Mountain Dew did a similar thing in the states they put a 350 song limit on it. Which sounds much more reasonable, I mean I've known about it for what, 3 days? and I've only got one song left, after that, why would I buy coke instead of another brand? In case anyone's wondering (okay, I know you're not but sod it, this is my fantasy world, get your own one) the four so far are:
1. Linkin' Park and Jay-Z, Numb/Encore - very well used in Miami Vice, but possibly the best part of the film, except the guns and the cars, and the boats, and the girls. Honestly, Micheal Mann never beat "The Keep".
2. Sandi Thom, What if I'm right - I just like it
3. Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, Somewhere Over the Rainbow / What a Wonderful World - as used in many films and the subject of a campaign on radio 1 to get it released as a single. One of the few versions of this song (What a Wonderful World) that I can still listen to, it was the last song at my grandad's funeral, but that was the Louie version.
4. Eels, Mr E's Beautiful Blues - Just because really.

Lot's of lists in this post.

I asked for it I suppose

They say that pride comes before a fall (a miss quote but never mind) and I guess that's true here. After my previous statements, it turns out that I haven't finished my NVQ. It looks like the four observation days that we did aren't enough and the boss and myself need to do another one. To be honest, I thought we'd done an extra one anyway but I guess the boss wasn't taking down notes that day.
This wouldn't be a problem but the boss is on leave until the end of August so if I need to do another day with him I'll have to stay up here for an extra few days or a week.
Don't get me wrong, I do like it up here but I was getting my mind sorted for the move so I need to re-evaluate somewhat.
Pah, it's no big deal really but it does suck somewhat. Mainly because this is one of those things that gets sprung on you with an air of "Oh, did you not know?"
On the plus side, I can use the time to loose more weight and get a bit fitter. OASC beckons, but that's another story.
Oh and a belated Happy Birthday Kev!

Not many jobs where you're only expected to be right six days out of 7

Of course the RAF require a bit better than that, but that's the official statistic.
It's been stormy today, I managed to be able to say, "and after the main storm system passes we may still get isolated storm cells with a chance of tornados."
For those of you in the US or elsewhere, tornados aren't a regular feature in the UK but at least two were reported yesterday and the conditions are the same so I could honestly predict them. Generally the twisters that we get here are small and short lived, except for the Birmingham storm last year of course, but we do get quite a few of them in the year but no one usually notices. In fact we have the highest density of tornados of any country. Checking the BBC News there have been reports of tornadic activity in the areas we went for, so yay for me.
I've finished all of the modules of my NVQ in weather forecasting that I can do here as well, so I'm almost fully qualified. An NVQ is a National Vocational Qualification; it's a work based skills qualification that you can get in almost any subject. There are 5 levels, level 1 being the more rudimentary skills and level 4/5 being the highest. The big difference between the top two levels (we've been told) is that level 5 has management gumpf thrown in as well. I've been doing the level 4, which is quite enough for me. It's made up of different units that you have to gain evidence for, things like finding out about the customer and what they need from the weather forecasting services, to actually forecasting, monitoring the weather, presenting the briefs and then things like health and safety. The unit 1 - Customer's requirements and critical values - can be completed by a series of tables listing things like who the customers are and what the maximum wind speeds are for example. I did it a bit differently, mine was what can only be described as an essay on the RAF station that I'm at. I feel sorry for my SMetO (Senior Meteorological Officer - the boss) as he had to trawl through it finding the relevant bits of information. I went back through it and highlighted the important bits so it was a bit better for him but the thing still comes out at 11,033 words, which is pretty much dissertation length. Oh well, I had quite alot of stuff to say, and the SMetO says he didn't know some of the stuff in it so I feel validated.
If I did it again though, or had to make a recommendation to someone else, I say it would be easier to use tables to answer the questions.

My tiny car.

After the post about driving, I thought I should give a bit more information on my "mighty steed". I drive a Daihatsu Charade, which is a "city car". For the Americans amongst you, that's a car that will fit into the load bay of Ford F series truck. It's small. City car is the grade below "supermini" which is smaller than "mini". There aren't many cars smaller, the Smart car and the Fiat Cinquicento are, but not many others.
When I bought it, well, started paying for it, I hadn't passed my test yet and needed a cheap, efficient little car that would be easy to drive. The Charade fulfills these criteria brilliantly. Four six foot adults will fit in relatively comfortably and the car will do the ton (100 mph) four up, it just takes a while to get there.
Contrary to many, many reviews, it is fun to drive but lacks space and pace. It's got a three cylinder one litre engine that will go 0-60 in about 13 seconds, so it's not going to give you whiplash when you put your foot down but it's a fun little go-cart to drive. For reference for the Americans, it does about 60 miles to the gallon, a gallon over here costs about £4.50, or 96.9 pence per litre, which at the current rate of 1.88 Dollars to the pound, gives a cost of $8.45 per gallon. Fortunately it's band B for road tax (compulsory tax in the UK) which is only £40 per year.
The boot space is tiny (especially mine, which has an amplifier and twin 6x9 speakers) but you can fit six months worth of your life into the back of it. This I know because I've had to do it on numerous occasions, and will again in about a month.
I would like a bigger car, maybe a Volvo XC70, a Mitsubishi L200 Animal or a 4x4 of some kind, but until I get more of the car paid off I'll be sticking with the Charade. It's a reliable little run-around, it's a Daihatsu so should be running when my niece is learning to drive.
Just thought I'd clear up some of the comments I might make about the car.

If you would like to feature on this page...

I use those three dots quite a bit don't I?
Anyway, if you would like a blog/link what ever "featured" on here, just add a comment/send me an e-mither (Mark and Lard, gone but not forgotten) or find me in the street and shout at me.
The links on the right will be increased as time goes on. If I can ever get back onto the photo pages or my home page I'll add that. Possibly. Oh, speaking of photo pages, sorry Jon, probably not worth people joining Ringo, I've added the piccies to Flickr and Photobucket so I'll put links up to them on the side bar soon. For now, have a look here for Flickr or here for photobucket although I need to add more photos to both and better descriptions for photobucket. I think I'll be using Flickr more, unless I hear from you guys that you'd rather I use t'other, or a different one.
Well, it's 0155 L, 0055 Z so I think I'll sign off t'interweb for now. Sleep well, don't let the bed bugs paralyze.
Jim.

The Beep test...

Okay, I knew I was unfit. I know I AM unfit, but less so now. I thought I was worse than I am. Somewhere in there is a sentence. The beep test (multi stage fitness test or shuttle run test, call it what you will, I call it EVIL) is a method of gauging aerobic fitness. I was correct that it uses points 20 m apart, although I've heard that certain police forces use 15 m for their spacing. I was incorrect in the first instance that the initial speed is 8 or 8.5 kph (5 mph). The initial increase is 1 or 0.5 kph respectively and from then on the increase is 0.5 kph per minute. See here for more information. This means that I've got further to go, but it also means that I can aim better for the target.
On the plus side, my weight is coming down, recently by about 1.5 kg per week (about 3 lb), which I'm going to try and continue for another 6 weeks or more. I read that varying meal times and types helps the body burn fat better, no worries, I'm on shifts so things are ready mixed, time wise. Would rather have passed the selection first time through though.
Today at work we had some pilots in from a visiting squadron and I was briefing them on the weather conditions where they wanted to fly. I was giving them the best information I could, but all the time I was thinking "Gits. I'd give my right nad to be doing your job." Don't get me wrong, I love this job, but they fly multi million pound jets at low level at almost the speed of sound, more if they feel like it. I was talking to a mate up north and he messed up his RAF selection for aircrew in much the same way that I did. We were wondering what life would have been like, had we not fluffed so much of the selection and made it as air crew.
Maybe in another world.
Ah well, it's like I said to the pseudo-Buddhist on Cheltenham high street when he asked me if I was interested in "his" way (they were actually selling books on self awareness), "I've got a path, I follow my feet, do the job in front of me and then move on." This is the job in front of me, and this is what needs to be done. Now if I can just stop the top from rubbing when I'm running, suggestions to the usual address.

Learning to drive all over again

After doing some skid pan training in the south led me to try and join the institute of advanced motoring and get some training as a better driver. So I joined via the "skill for life" package, mainly as I got a £10 discount for being under 25. Tried to get training started while I was down in Exeter but time was against me so I started my training two weeks ago. Had my second drive yesterday. The observer I'm with reckons I won't need too many sessions, but I've only got 5 weeks left here before I head north. There's a group up in Lossie but I'd like to get it sorted before I go up. Doubt I'll do it in time though.
So, what does advanced driving require over and above the normal "L test" driving that everyone does. Assuming here that everyone drives well enough to pass their test if they re-took it today. There is a system of car control consisting of five processes, Information, Position, Speed, Gear, Acceleration. They say that the helpful phrase "IPSGA" will help to remember this. How IPSGA is easy to remember I'm not sure. What this means is you receive and give information as needed, looking as far ahead and behind as possible and signaling if needed; getting into the correct position for the hazard (anything except a clear open straight road), getting to the correct speed for the hazard, putting the car into the correct gear for the speed before the hazard and then using the accelerator to maintain the same speed through the hazard. And then it goes on. Things like looking under cars for feet, moving across the road more to accommodate other drivers and cyclists. Makes driving more intense and more involving, but needs more concentration.
Unfortunately, well, understandably, speeding is NOT tolerated. At all. 5 mph over the limit is a fail. Now, I'm not too bad at most speed limits (honest) especially 30 mph ones but this is an absolute rule. Coming up to a 30 limit from a national, you hit 30 at the sign, but not too far in front as that's bad form. Going the other way you are still at 30 when you pass the national limit sign. Then you hoof it to get to the safe speed for the conditions (car, road, weather and other traffic) up to the limit as fast as reasonable. So staying in third until you hit 60 then straight into fifth gear. On motorways you do 70, or less if the conditions warrant it, which sucks. I know the limit is 70, but I believe that it should be higher, dependent on the conditions, so weather variable limits effectively.
Well, apart from hitting the gym yesterday, that's been it this week. Work was good, correctly forecast the storms (in general terms), but I did miss a fog warning, which was a bit of a mess up on my part.

it's a bit warm

Okay, 30 C isn't that hot for some of the people that might be reading this, but for the north of England it's hot. The hottest July day where I am on record is 31.1 C, yesterday we got to 30.6 C. The overall hottest day on record here is 33.5 and it's already 30 C at 1500 L. Tomorrow should be hotter still.
Of course, providing that I pass OASC and get fully into the MMU, I should be going to places where 30 C will feel cool by comparison, but more on that later.
After tomorrow's night shift I'll be going to the gym to try the RAF fitness test again. No actual importance to this one, except that if I can do better (I should) it'll make the guys at head office happier about giving me the chance to continue. I don't want to think too much about the alternative to tell you the truth.
Hell, I REALLY want to do well at this job. It's only a small part of the machine but what a machine!
If anyone wants to try the RAFFT for themselves, it's 8.3 on the beep test (running between two points 20 m apart to a timed beep that starts at 3 mph and increases by 0.5 mph each minute ), then in one minute do 13 press-ups with a perfectly flat body (no arse in the air) down to a fists height above the surface, then in another minute do 31 sit-ups with knees bent at 90 deg and someone leaning on your feet, rising to have your elbows over your knees. Now to be honest, I should be able to do this easily, the standards (given here for a male over 25) aren't very high, it's just more than I can do, or could, not sure what I can do at the moment. Couple of days and I'll know though...
Wish me luck, I may yet need it.
Oh and just to wish Jon and Pippa both luck in finding work, one in Australia and one in France.

To explain the last few posts...

Last week I was in Exeter again for various training things, the posts from then, including the rather odd drunk one, were written on notepad so I could post them when I was back on a network. Which I am and I have.
So, there we go.
If the drunk post seems a bit melodramatic that's because it is. The things I'm going on about are real, if a bit over the top. Sorry if that's a problem, if so, post a comment and let me know.
I may not respond or impliment any changes but I will read all of them and I will pay attention.
Walk in light but fear not the shadows,
Jim

Morning 18/06/06

You know it's been a while since I had an hangover, I think that's a good thing.
Well, we're back in Exter, back in the Office's accomodation, which is some new built houses that they rent or at least have an arrangement for. It's good to see the guys, although it was only a month since Toulouse. Feels like the last four months haven't really happened. Or at least didn't last as long as they did.
The house I'm in is the same size as the one I was in for the IFC, but there's only two of us in it, rather than three as was. Also the other guy in the house is a new bloke called Dorian from Toronto. Nice guy, 21 and that makes him seem young. Not that four years is a big age gap, certainly less than between most of the people he's been meeting at Exeter, it's just attitude I guess. Like the guys were saying (admittedly about one person in particular), the time at our stations has made some of us grow up alot. He's at the office doing research in mathematics, prooving the physical arguement for including moisture in the semi-geostrophic equations. He's a smart guy. If the description doesn't mean anything to you, don't worry, it won't to 99% of the population. Less probably.

16/06/06 Sober now.

Last post was a bit strange, was writing while drunk. Seeing as how I'm off line at the moment and writing all of this on notepad until I can transcribe it onto Blogger, it might seem weird that I've left it in. Try to understand that I'm trying to let this blog be a record of my thoughts so I'm writing these as they come and I'll be posting them when I can.
It may give you a better insight into my mind, though you may not want to do that. Anyway, back to more mundane matters, finished the health and safety training today, and I think it's safe to say that the only things I've learnt are the legal gumph around the HSE. Haven't learnt any new safe ways of doing anything. Did learn that legally you don't need to put everything into a risk assessment, just the significant things.
Off out now, I'll post over the weekend.

Evening 15/06/06

So, the heatlth and safety training was all I'd expected and more, we were taught the theory, history and law of health and safety, it's moral and financial founding and current application. R damn near fell asleep for most of this afternoon. I'd made the mistake of being interested in some of the areas, asking relevent questions and the like, which made me the "keen" one in the group. Bang goes any hope I had of a sly snooze. You know how it is, one person catches the attention of the instructor and it focused on for the rest of the session. My fault really, some of it did seem relevent and, dare I say it, interesting. Only one day left, mainly going to be safe laser, radar, radiation and things like that.
But anyway, now the sun is down and the afterglow of the day is painting the sky to the northwest. My window is open wide from where I've been sat in it and the computer upon which I write has an evening mix on iTunes, Lighthouse Family, Ludovico Einardi, Nina Simone, Eels, Shawn Mullins' Lullaby, that sort of thing. And I'm thinking about life, where it's going and where I am, about love and about searching for meaning in it all.
Love, I'm not sure, I love my friends in a way that I've described before but I can't help thinking that there is more out there, but maybe not for me; at least not yet. It's not that I'm lonely, although I am, in a way; it's not that there's any kind of emptyness inside, it's just that sometimes I do miss coming home to someone that missed you, that held a space for you in their world, that fills a space in yours. Companionship I guess you could call it.
Sorry, feeling a bit melancholy tonight, must be the wine and the company. Both of which were good, and there's the problem. There's some lasses that I know, very attractive in body, mind, spirit and soul, whom I love as friends and as more. I know that they don't feel the same way and I'd almost convinced myself that it was a lack of physical attractiveness. I know I'm no underwear model when it comes to looks or body. But I know, deep down, that it's not that. I know that physical lust (for want of a better word) is just one thing and it takes more than that for a relationship. I don't think I'm repulsive, and I don't think I'm unloveable, it's just I know that one of the ladies has known me for too long...
Ahh, bollocks, I can't even lie to myseld any more. I've left that sentance in and not deleted it because it's not true but I want you (whomever) to know that I' have thought it. Everyone does, I guess, trying to find a reason for that one word that shatters all the defenses that we build around our brittle defences; that "no." I know that length of time that someone knows you for is irrelevent. None of the girls finds me attractive and neither feels for me as I do for them. No fault, just one of those things. T'was not meant to be. If I can be a good friend to them I'll feel as though I have served them as a loved one.

It's now full dark outside and these thoughts run through me like the wind across the moorland. I know that I MUST pass OASC, not to keep my job, but to give me the chance to serve. This might sound bloody odd, and it's not "every man feels less of himself for not being a soldier" (okay maybe a little bit). It's about my neice. It's about my family. It's about my friends, who, in the darkness of the night of my doubt and my sadness, come to me and give me the light of their pressence, who come and shine like brilliant stars, guiding me back to the peaceful places where I've felt safe. I can help protect them from the darkness of the world, and this calls to me like nothing I've ever felt. As the man said, "people sleep soundly in their beds knowing that rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." For little Ellen, so she may grow up in a world less fearful than I remember, for my friends and their loved ones, that they may love and be peaceful, never knowing what lies beyond the sunset willing them harm; for them I will train and I WILL stand against the dark. Not for politics, for that is generally lies told to mask the desires of the powerful, whispered on the tide of history; not for religion, for faith heals and does not harm, for God does not wish us to take arms against each other, that is interprepation and the words of man; but for the life of a young child, be it my blood, my friends or one whom I have never met. All these are precious and for them I will put myself into the way of harm, make of myself a target and take up arms against them. "Rave, Rave against the dying of the light" for if those of us that are able do not stand, then the tide of fear and of hate that flows from every corner will o'er run us and leave us without a prayer of salvation or of hope.
Not on my watch. Not to my kin.



Hmmmm, that was odd.
ahh well, I meant every word. Sleep well.

Just a stub to fill the space..

Aright, just jotting something down to say that I'm still here.
More posts will come up soon, out of sequence but I'll date them to be relevant.
Listening to... "I like it like that" by Pete Rodriguez (the Boogaloo music from the Odeon cinemas) and Stiltskin's "Inside" Rock baby!!!!

Okay, back to the broadband connection (one of those things you never miss until it's gone, like air and sex really... man I need to get out more.)

This one is from 14/06/06

Morning.
Have to go into HQ for health and safety training. Not hopeful that it will be interesting, thinking most likely it'll just be lifting and carrying, not drinking the mercury in the thermometers and that sort of common sense stuff.
Finished the new Jim Butcher Dresden book last night, it's good. The whole series is good and the character development is brilliant.
Met up with the guys again, as we're all back for the same training, good to see them all again but I ate too much pizza, GOT to be careful with that, need to loose about 7-12 kg in the next 3 months, which I think is possible, I just need to be honest with myself about what I'm eating and doing and not convince myself that "this one doesn't matter" or other such bollocks. Maybe she'll find me more attractive then. Listen to that! Me, concerned about my looks! Ha!
Might say who she is, but not at this time.
Later...

Fun with a goat...

Oh the obvious jokes...
The e-goat is the RAF's version ofARRSE the Army rumour network, which is not at all associated with PPRuNe, the Professional Pilots Rumour Network.
These are the ways to stay abreast of the current developments in the defense world. Often the best way, as our banter with the pilots is often not broad enough to encompass the whole of the RAF.
Have a look. See if you can guess who's whom...

Jacob's: to be absolutely knackered..

Knackered: to be tired. Jacob's as in Jacob's Cream Crackers. Rhyming slang, crackers/crackered = knackered.
Basically, I'm Jacob's.
Day shift yesterday, day shift tomorrow. Wouldn't be too bad but I didn't get to sleep until past 0415 last night and the shift starts at 0815. It's now 2254 so I'll be brief (for an explanation of the 24 hour clock, click here ) and all times are British Local, or GMT/UTC+1. Greenwich Mean Time/Universal Time Co-ordinate, also known as Zulu time, is the datum time from the meridian, but more on that later.
Shifts are 12 hours and normally fine but I just couldn't get to sleep. I tried reading for a bit, zen mind clearing exercises, the whole kit and kabodle, even that. Nowt. Eventually used the same system as I use on a night shift. "If I can't sleep, I'll at least rest my eyes and mind", and as on nights, it helps. As much as urinating into a reservoir helps to fill it.
So now I'm going back to sleep for a few hours. I'll probably edit this post at some point to make it make sense or just to make it not exist.
Oh, reason I came online. Can any of my readers (I'm hoping there's more than one) recommend a photo hosting thingy? Kev's suggested photobucket, Pip's got me on ringo but that needs hotmail/yahoo stuff. Anyone used flickr? Comments or mail will be welcome, as if I can find one that everyone can use I can put some of my piccies online.
No Beth, not like that.
Although the thighs may make an appearance....

What's the RAF?

Silly title, especially as google is just a click away (isn't FireFox grand?)
The Royal Air Force. You can tell it's British because it doesn't say what country it's from. You get that alot, it's The Times, The Royal Mail, The Royal Air Force, the Football Association. Mostly the first of their kind, and just arrogant enough to assume that you know it's British.
Anyway, this is just to set a few ground rules about what I can say and why.
I work at an RAF base in England. I'm a civil servant, so while officially I work for the government, it's in the same kind of way that a fisheries agency bloke does. The ministry of defense (MoD) pays for a weather service at all the stations that it flies out of (except if it's just gliders) and so the UK has a weather service with usually 24 hour coverage weekdays where ever there's a flying station.
I can probably tell you which station, but I won't mention it too much, and I can say which squadrons are at the station, in general but I can't say which aircraft are there at any one time. I can't say who visited/where the aircraft are going/when things are happening, for obvious security reasons.
Terrorism isn't new. I grew up with the threat of groups like IRA, UDF, ETA, the Red Army Faction (why you never said RAF in Germany) and all those other b@st@rds that waltzed around in Europe in the eighties and nineties. It's just in the last 5 years that some countries have realised what it means to fund an agency of murder and that it is not a good thing. The security measures on this site are rudimentary, and while it may be tiresome, I'll not be dropping them. Hope you understand.
Jim

Briefing, and no, that's nothing to do with underwear

My job is to forecast the weather for a specific set of customers. My forecasts must be as accurate as I can get them, they must be delivered on time, and when I deliver them in person, they must be given in a manner that results in the customer believing me. If I put it like that it's quite scary sounding. Possibly more so when you consider that the customer is the RAF. If I get parts of the forecast wrong people could die. That might sound a bit melodramatic but in this case it's true. I won't go into the details of that right now as there's time later to expand.
For the last three months I've been observing the weather (this does not mean watching the weather, but recording changes in cloud height, visibility and other things) and practicing producing forecasts but not actually delivering them. Yesterday that changed. I had my first brief!
Okay, there were only three pilots in the room and they'd been asked to be nice, but damn it that doesn't matter. It was a real brief, I delivered it and I didn't look like a complete tit!
At the end of a brief, the last powerpoint slide is always "any questions?" One of the squadrons we brief is renowned for not responding to the slide, or indeed most of the presentation. This time they asked a couple of questions, one was really nice and one was something that wasn't too bad.
At today's brief, a different forecaster was keeping an eye on me. This time there were 6 of them (ohh). The brief went better and at the end the "any questions" slide came up to be greeted with marked indifference by the squadron and a cheerful "what's the wind going to be over the channel at 10000ft three days from now?" from the other forecaster.
Cue "rabbit in headlamps" look from muggins here, and no reaction at all from the pilots. We left with me muttering "excuse us, I need to kill this forecaster."
Later this week I should be briefing the other squadron on the station. There will probably be ten times as many of them there and they are a much more sarcastic bunch. Should be interesting.
BTW the station in Yorkshire that I'm serving at has two squadrons, as previously mentioned. (This will probably give you enough intel to figure it out). B, as I'll call them, are a training squadron. These are the less formal ones that I'll be briefing later. The other squadron, T, are a fighter squadron and much more serious. It seems to be the way that fighter squadrons take everything more seriously, which, all things considered, is probably a good thing, but it requires a different manner when dealing with them. With B you can relax and have "banter" with them (an essential skill, as I'm finding out), whereas T expect professionalism and an air of "this is serious, we may be about to go to war", which I can't even type without my eyebrow raising and an expression of "Biggles gets the runs". It's an RAF thing.

Almost a pointless day

Went down to the Castleford Xscape and snowdome thingy earlier. Was offered the chance to do three hours of boarding but at £70 it was a bit much, mainly because the lesson wouldn't have been what I needed. To be honest, if the lesson had started a couple of hours earlier, instead of the three hours wait that was required, I probably would have said "sod it" and gone ahead with the whole thing. As it was I managed to have a good mooch around and got a few things sorted for future visits.
On the way back to the digs, I decided to try and find somewhere to fly my kite for a while, but when I found an area that wasn't full of kids or cows, I couldn't get the bloody kite in the air!!! Ten minutes of trying to solo launch a Stacker 6 in foot high bloody grass! Flying was an hell of a lot easier on the beach at St Andrews! So I decided to bin the day and try again tomorrow.
At Xscape slope time includes kit hire but I'm wondering if it'll be worth getting some decent boots and a board bag and bringing my board and bindings up from the south. Think the best way to find out will be to get some slope time, either at the weekend or, more likely, on one of my night shift days. Book a few days in advance and as long as I'm back for about 1600L, all should be well.
When it comes down to it, it's all a laugh, and as my mate Jai used to say, "every day's a good day."

Bit of background

Figured that if anyone was reading this it might be useful to give a bit more information on who I am.
Born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire in 1980, parents in the forces so moved around a bit, enough that I don't really have any regional accent. I'm what's known as a "patch-brat" - forces kid. Parents moved to Gloucestershire in 92, about the same time that I started senior school.
I was in the school orchestra (wasn't very good at the clarinet, should have practiced more), the Boys' Brigade and took the Duke of Edinburgh's Award at bronze, silver and gold levels. Later helped in the running of the Award unit. Met some really good friends at school, Ferret, Tash and Kev mainly but there were others. Did fairly well in my exams and came out with a number of GCSEs and five A-levels, four if you don't count General Studies - which is basically a pub quiz. Those were maths, physics, biology, and chemistry, grades B or C, which I think is rather good.
Went to uni at the University of Wales, Swansea studying physics, which was definately the right choice for me. Unfortunately I didn't study as hard as I should have and had to resit the third year, dropping from the four year masters course to a three year batchelors, which is one of the things I regret. While at uni I carried on kayaking (badly), climbing (also badly), took up archery (not too bad, but now I shoot longbow so accuracy is less important), diving (never managed to get my qualifications signed up although I passed all of them so I'm not qualified) and a few silly things with friends. I was involved with the DofE society for a while, the Physics soc (president and then year rep) which included our road trip to CERN, more on that later, Cult TV (not as bad as it sounds...okay it was) and sometimes RAG.
Mainly I had fun with friends. In the final year ('02) our house fell out a bit, partly due to miscommunication, which is another thing I regret. I'll add more on uni later.
After uni I couldn't get the research position I wanted, something to do with getting a low honours, so I returned home and became a bin man for a while. Then I got a job with Millets and was offered the assistant manager's job on my third day. Worked for them for a while and then moved to Blacks which was a much better shop. Same chain but I've been walking for a long time and I'm the sort of person that finds out things about his kit out of interest so the more technical shop was definately better. Made some good friends there as well and then in 2005 my mate Tanner told me of a job going at the research place he was working at so I sent in my CV and got an interview. At the same time, I'd replied to an advert in New Scientist for a job with the Met Office and I got an interview for that as well. A few weeks passed then, in the course of 24 hours, I was offered both jobs.
This was a problem, I wanted both of the jobs, working with Tanner would be ace and would get me back into research, while the Met job would get me traveling and had a few elements that the research job didn't have. It wasn't an easy choice but I went for the Met Office, duty and service and all that playing a not insignificant part in the choice. As a result, in the last 10 months I've worked in Exeter, Oxford, Scotland and now Yorkshire, I've been to Lincoln a couple of times and I've done the Royal Marines Commando challenge, a basic powerboat handling course and skid pan training. If I can pass my physical this time, in six months I'll be a Reserve officer in the RAF. If I can't pass the fitness test, I'll be out of a job so I've been training better this time.
And that brings you up to date, except for the massive amounts I've glossed over, such as serving for a year on the Tewkesbury Abbey PCC, and alot about the friends I've made on the way. But there's always time...

nostalgia revisited

So, to expand on the post from before Doctor Who (good programme), back at uni we'd head out and find something to do on a day. We might go body boarding or snorkeling, we might go luging on street luges, well one luge and take turns. We might go climbing or just chill on the beach or in the park. Sometimes we went wind surfing or just wandered with friends around town, laughing at all the scallies and townies.
These days, mainly due to the fact that my nearest friend, not counting the guys from the IFC (Initial Forecasting Course, the six months in Exeter where we learnt to forecast the weather), is in south Scotland. For anyone reading this (?) that's about 210 miles from here and that's just a bit too far. Oddly enough, I'm almost 210 miles from all my friends. So, I can either find things to do on my own or make new friends/do things with newer friends.
Don't get me wrong on this, the guys from the MOC are great but for me a friend is something specific. I've got mates, people I enjoy being with and that includes the IFC lot and most of the guys from work, but I haven't really spent any time with them outside of work; but a friend, with an emphasis that I can't put into text, for me is something greater.
A friend is a mate that I could sit for hours with, without speaking and neither of us feeling that this would be wrong, a friend is someone that I'd climb with by choice, not necessity (if this doesn't give an idea of the level of trust, you've never gone climbing), someone that I would travel halfway round the world to help, and is someone for whom I'd die for, and probably kill to protect. Given that I'm in a job where I might have to do that for the government (VERY unlikely but a possibility) that last should be taken with an understanding that for the Ferret, Tash, Tanner, Andi, D'Abs, Sara Jules, Ria and the rest of the guys there'd be no thought involved, I have love for them and place their lives above mine.
That little list isn't conclusive, but has made me realise that I've got more friends than I thought, which is always a nice feeling.

When I think of what we USED to do on a weekend......

So, it's a bank holiday weekend, three days off.
I could be heading to Scotland, Wales, the Lakes, anywhere. What am I doing? Went to the flicks earlier (X-Men 3, not bad, 3 and a half stars, better than the Da Vinci Code) and then went shopping. And, excitement of excitement, I bought some underwear! Okay, it was CK, but even so.
In the back of my car I've got climbing kit, snorkeling kit and a power kite. Why the hell didn't I use some of it? Ahh, well there's always tomorrow. Actually, I think I'll try the indoors snow slope tomorrow and fly a kite later, but it's Dr Who now so will send again later.
Jim, or maybe Jimbo, not sure about that.....

Been quite a week

So, last week we were in the South of France with work. Such a hard life....
Basically we went to Toulouse to visit Meteo France, the French Met service (that's meteorology, not Metropolitan), as part of an exchange system of students. We had seen the French students at Exeter, but they didn't really seem to have much laid on for them as we had in France.
This is another one of those occasions where I wish I knew more of a foreign language, I have a small amount of French, just enough not to starve and be able to navigate a bus route, that sort of thing, but one of our group, E, is fluent. She was a god send in this case. Having said that the French all spoke English that was damn near perfect anyway. Really put us to shame.
Main points that came across to me were that the French generally put much more value on scientists and engineers, whereas in this country (UK) we seem to be embarrassed by anyone that is good at something mentally challenging. Footballers and the like are loved but engineers and scientists are seen as that most terrible of things, "too clever by half." The other thing, and more important really, was that the French train to be able to fit in anywhere in their establishment, be it research, forecasting, IT or HR, and the choice of the job they get is dependent on their grades in the academic work they produce while training. If there are 15 in the class, the are rated on results and a list of 15 positions is prepared. The best student gets to choose their preference, then the next down and so on. If you didn't do very well, you get what is left. As a result the students all seemed VERY focused on their work.
Now I'm not saying that this is a bad thing, indeed it's good for the grades, but we have a belief in the values of "work hard, play hard". In this way the work MUST be done to an acceptable standard, but once that is done it's time to relax and have fun. One of the nights coincided with the Arsenal game so some of the guys watched the game with some of the French while the rest of us had a really good meal (and bloody expensive) in Toulouse. They mentioned to us afterwards that the locals were quite quiet and restrained. The next day was the soiree held for us, which as might be imagined, turned into a fairly drunken affair. Nothing TOO embarrassing (except my dancing) but hey, play hard is important.

Did feel like a youth club in places though. Darts, table football, spontaneous line dancing (I'm not kidding here) and later more of a dancy feel. Loved it! Except the line dancing, but they enjoyed it and the number of students there was so small that I guess they know what they like and can enjoy it, so good for them.
Still think they focus too much on broadscale and vorticity though, but that's just my personal view.
Jim

A beginning...

So, aside from the information in the brief profile, there isn't much to say at the moment. I'm new to blogging, as you can tell by the fact this is the first post. Some of my friends have blogs, to a large extent I've been put off them as I have to make sure that nothing that I write is not allowed due to work. This will make more sense soon, I promise.
As it is, in 7 hours the boss and myself are heading to Bristol, picking up two collegues on the way, to head with the rest of my forecasting course and some of their bosses to the south of France for a week of experiencing the French way of forecasting.
Bon.