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Helen May
Joined: 10 Dec 2006
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Location: Cheshire
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 Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 6:23 pm Post subject: |
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So London is the Midlands.......................... 
H
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mark occomore
Joined: 07 Dec 2006
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Location: UK
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| Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 6:49 pm Post subject: |
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| M27 Hampshire? |
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mark occomore
Joined: 07 Dec 2006
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Location: UK
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| Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 6:50 pm Post subject: |
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We call it Thawwatch  |
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Lord Evan Elpuss
Joined: 10 Dec 2006
Posts: 3415
Location: Cloud Cuckoo Land
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| Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 7:23 pm Post subject: |
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| R2Icon wrote: | | Helen May wrote: | | R2Icon wrote: | | Lord Evan Elpuss wrote: | | Still some lying about in the not very sunny south! |
North of the M27- hardly south....  |
What do you term as south Rachel?
H |
South of the M27! Helen Anywhere North of the M27 is the Midlands until you get up as far North as Newcastle , then you're in the proper North, where I come from |
What have I started?!!  
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Angela W
Joined: 11 Dec 2006
Posts: 7202
Location: North Yorkshire
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| Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 8:31 pm Post subject: |
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Well there isn't any thaw going on here. At 8am the temperature outside was -5c and although it did warm up, it barely got above freezing all day. We have had 7 inches of snow.
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ruddlescat
Joined: 16 Sep 2010
Posts: 18010
Location: Near Chester
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| Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 8:37 pm Post subject: |
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Actually interestingly enough I gather that where I live near Chester now officially counts as the South for weather forecasting purposes because they count the North as anywhere north of Lancaster and I don't think the Midlands exists any more in meterological terms
Of course we all know this doesn't have much connection with the real world - perhaps the met office must be stuffed full of Scotspersons
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Toggy
Joined: 18 Aug 2008
Posts: 1239
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| Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 9:01 pm Post subject: |
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| mark occomore wrote: | | We call it Thawwatch |
Sounds like a good idea, John was a great actor.  |
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Helen May
Joined: 10 Dec 2006
Posts: 19334
Location: Cheshire
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| Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 9:31 pm Post subject: |
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at Toggy!
H
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I said it live on air in the studio with Jeremy Vine on 10/3/2005 |
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RockitRon
Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 7646
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| Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 9:55 pm Post subject: |
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| ruddlescat wrote: | Actually interestingly enough I gather that where I live near Chester now officially counts as the South for weather forecasting purposes because they count the North as anywhere north of Lancaster and I don't think the Midlands exists any more in meterological terms
Of course we all know this doesn't have much connection with the real world - perhaps the met office must be stuffed full of Scotspersons |
When you look at Great Britain, Chester is certainly in the southern half, but since the forecasts almost always refer to the four main constituents of the UK separately it does seem a little strange.
You're right about the emasculation of the Midlands, though. On the BBC's map (on television) it's a big hole in the middle where there's no indication of weather or temperature at all. |
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R2Icon
Joined: 10 Sep 2009
Posts: 1444
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| Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 8:27 am Post subject: |
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| Helen May wrote: | So London is the Midlands..........................
H |
Well..... the East Midlands
Where I was born and grew up in North Northumberland, everywhere was South- nothing annoyed me more than people in Middlesbrough claiming to be from the North! - when at 17 years old, I got a job in Poole in Dorset and went to live there- everywhere was North... the big space in the middle between where I used to be and where I am now, is always going to be the bit in the middle and as it's largely made up of land: it makes sense from a Rachel-centric point of view to call it the Midlands. |
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Helen May
Joined: 10 Dec 2006
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Location: Cheshire
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| Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 9:55 am Post subject: |
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Well I was born in Newcastle and so you would probably think I was born in the south , but think we'll have to agree to disagree. I live 180 miles away from there now and I certainly don't live in the South or the Midlands.....................
H
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Lord Evan Elpuss
Joined: 10 Dec 2006
Posts: 3415
Location: Cloud Cuckoo Land
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| Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 10:03 am Post subject: |
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Well, they refer to Luton airport as 'London Luton' now, even Oxford Airport has had a 'London' prefix added so they might as well call Castle Donnington 'London East Midlands'! Can't wait for the uproar when the long arm of London spreads out and envelpoes Manchester, Leeds-Bradford & Newcastle's airports. I doubt even the Welsh will be safe from having the 'London' Prefix added to Cardiff-Wales airport!
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RockitRon
Joined: 07 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 10:18 am Post subject: |
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| Lord Evan Elpuss wrote: | | Well, they refer to Luton airport as 'London Luton' now, even Oxford Airport has had a 'London' prefix added so they might as well call Castle Donnington 'London East Midlands'! Can't wait for the uproar when the long arm of London spreads out and envelpoes Manchester, Leeds-Bradford & Newcastle's airports. I doubt even the Welsh will be safe from having the 'London' Prefix added to Cardiff-Wales airport! |
Makes you nostalgic for the days when the airports were named after where they actually, were, rather than the big city twenty miles away - Elmdon, Rhoose, Lulsgate, Woolsington, and, yes, Castle Donington. There was uproar when they spent a million and renamed the last "Nottingham East Midlands", not least because it's in Leicestershire and is closer to Derby than anywhere else. |
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Lord Evan Elpuss
Joined: 10 Dec 2006
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Location: Cloud Cuckoo Land
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| Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 10:30 am Post subject: |
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I remember a sense of incredulity when they called Doncaster airport 'Robin hood'. Surely the Robin Hood tag should have been given to Nottingham airport!!
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Lord Evan Elpuss, Your ideal job is a Lumberjack. |
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RockitRon
Joined: 07 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 12:19 pm Post subject: |
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Nah, Nottingham (Tollerton) is execs and flying clubs.
Doncaster is proper outlaw country!
(Ducks as he leaves...) |
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R2Icon
Joined: 10 Sep 2009
Posts: 1444
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| Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 2:42 pm Post subject: |
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| Helen May wrote: | Well I was born in Newcastle and so you would probably think I was born in the south , but think we'll have to agree to disagree. I live 180 miles away from there now and I certainly don't live in the South or the Midlands.....................
H |
Depends which side of the river you were born, Helen. North starts at the Tyne Bridge, and which for that very reason, correct me if I'm wrong, is called "The Gateway to the North". |
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Helen May
Joined: 10 Dec 2006
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Location: Cheshire
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| Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 4:55 pm Post subject: |
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Newcastle is north of the Tyne Rachel, Gateshead is on the other side. I've never heard the bridge being called the gateway to the north and I'm up there almost every other week.
H
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88 - 91 FM this is Radio 2 from the BBC!
I said it live on air in the studio with Jeremy Vine on 10/3/2005 |
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R2Icon
Joined: 10 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 6:19 pm Post subject: |
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| I'm sure that I did a project at school in History all about it - way back in the 1100s when Newcastle was called Monkchester, the Tyne and the bridge over it to the gate in Hadrian's Wall were known as "The Gateway to the North" - it's been like that ever since; it's always what my dad ( he was born there) called it, in fact, he insisted that whenever we crossed the Tyne we must use the proper crossing- he used to say , you haven't really come home unless you've come over the Tyne Bridge- obviously in the 1100s it would have been a different bridge and of course it's 30 years since I was at school so I may be getting muddled up. |
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Helen May
Joined: 10 Dec 2006
Posts: 19334
Location: Cheshire
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| Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 7:32 pm Post subject: |
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The north begins way further south than the Tyne Bridge, as far south as North Yorkshire even.
H
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I said it live on air in the studio with Jeremy Vine on 10/3/2005 |
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iwarburton
Joined: 08 Dec 2006
Posts: 2133
Location: Northumberland
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| Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 8:22 pm Post subject: |
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Jeremy Vine once had a contributor from Audlem, Cheshire, claiming to be from the most southerly village in the North!
Ian. |
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RockitRon
Joined: 07 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 8:53 pm Post subject: |
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If we had children of school age we could ask them what they are taught, but then schools no longer (seem to) teach geography.
Well, if you google it, the North Yorkshire Moors National Park (Pickering, Kirbymoorside etc) seems to call itself the Gateway to the North.
Naturally wiki has an article about it, and quotes the findings of the Ordnance Survey - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_points_of_the_United_Kingdom
So, going back to what Ruddles said, if the weather forecasters are now ignoring the political boundaries and constituents of GB (perhaps Alex Salmond will have something to say about that) then Cheshire is indeed in the South, and the North starts in the middle of Lancs and Yorks.
When I was a boy, in what was then still called Middlesex, although it had technically been abolished a year before I was born, the north was considered to be beyond a line which ran from The Wash, through Nottingham and Stoke to Cardigan Bay. Mansfield, just ten miles to the north of that line, certainly feels and sounds North.
Then again, after the M1 was built, some people thought the North started at Watford Gap. Or Watford, even. And as Rach says, if you live on the south coast nearly everywhere is north; vice versa for residents of Thurso and Tongue. |
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Lord Evan Elpuss
Joined: 10 Dec 2006
Posts: 3415
Location: Cloud Cuckoo Land
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| Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 9:49 pm Post subject: |
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Hope I haven't re-started the war of the roses here!! 
I'm trying to remember where Stuart Maconie said 'The North' started in his book Pies & Prejudice. Surely that's the definitive answer? 
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ruddlescat
Joined: 16 Sep 2010
Posts: 18010
Location: Near Chester
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| Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 10:12 pm Post subject: |
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Well if it helps there was of course a quite well known band I think in the 70's called 'Hatfield and the North'
That's probably taking things a little too far but I think as Ron says the problem is a lack of geography in schools 
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R2Icon
Joined: 10 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2012 9:20 am Post subject: |
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Ron, five minutes on Google and it becomes clear that there are many places in England claiming to be "the gateway to the north", the M1 Motorway, Kings Cross Station, Manchester Airport, The City of York to name a few of them, it’s as if there is some kudos in being in the North: well, yes there is Kudos in being from the North, but the places mentioned earlier and the one you mentioned are of course impostors. They are no more in the North than I am a Captain in the Swiss Guard.
North the direction and The North the area are two different entities with a common ancestor as explained below.
Way back in around 122AD the first Tyne Bridge was built – pretty much (give or take a few feet) where the current Tyne Bridge is. It was called Pons Aelius after Emperor Hadrian, before he built his wall. The area on the north side of the River Tyne got its name , “No-eth” from the Roman Soldiers who refused to go over the bridge and would rather volunteer for decimation* than cross the bridge (The Gateway to the No-eth) to fight with the locals (people like Helen and me) –in that area. The No-eth became famous around the Roman Empire and lots of Kudos could be gained by returning Roman Armies, if they marched into the cities from the direction as if they just come back from the No-eth. The No-eth was the very last place any Roman Soldier wanted to be drafted to as the very name of it struck them with fear. The direction No-eth or North as it has become is a result of many Roman signs between London and Newcastle pointing to the No-eth. Only the very bravest soldiers ever did come back from the No-eth the place. After the Romans left 410AD-ish the bridge was destroyed and the natural boarder of the No-eth returned. Over the years The No-eth has become anglicised to North- lots of people claim to be in or from the North because they think, just like the returning Roman Armies did that it has some kudos to do so. But the bottom line is Helen and me and a couple of others here are from the North ( an area north of the Tyne) the rest of you lager-drinking, jellied-eel-eating wussies are lily livered impostors from the South. So there!
* decimation – the regular and routine slaughter of one in ten Roman Soldiers to keep discipline in the ranks. |
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Lord Evan Elpuss
Joined: 10 Dec 2006
Posts: 3415
Location: Cloud Cuckoo Land
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| Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2012 11:27 am Post subject: |
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| R2Icon wrote: |
* decimation – the regular and routine slaughter of one in ten Roman Soldiers to keep discipline in the ranks. |
And all this time, I thought it was what happened when the copper ½p, 1p & 2p joined the, already in circulation, silver 5p, 10p & 50p coins in about 1970!! Thanks for putting me right Rachel!!
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mark occomore
Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 9955
Location: UK
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| Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 10:41 am Post subject: |
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| Time for the debate again - " Were the authorities caught out with the snow in the South East and London this morning"? |
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John W
Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 3367
Location: Warwickshire, UK
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| Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 8:49 pm Post subject: |
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Oh look we're talking about snow but ONLY WHEN IT HITS LONDON/ESSEX - it has been snowing for days up North y'know
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ruddlescat
Joined: 16 Sep 2010
Posts: 18010
Location: Near Chester
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| Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 9:15 pm Post subject: |
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I completely agree John - you'd think that Britain did not exist beyond the M25 corridor
No snow here today and actually quite a sunny winter day but I think it might arrive sometime tomorrow
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Angela W
Joined: 11 Dec 2006
Posts: 7202
Location: North Yorkshire
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| Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 9:27 pm Post subject: |
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We have got snow here now on top of the icy conditions we have had for days since the heavy rain of last week stopped!
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childprufe
Joined: 22 Dec 2006
Posts: 212
Location: lincolnshire
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| Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2012 4:38 am Post subject: |
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I don't know where the gateway to the North is, but I know where the sewer is - John Prescott used to be MP...............
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mark occomore
Joined: 07 Dec 2006
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Location: UK
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| Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 8:26 pm Post subject: |
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| Is the white stuff landing on your door step this weekend? |
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Angela W
Joined: 11 Dec 2006
Posts: 7202
Location: North Yorkshire
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| Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 10:18 pm Post subject: |
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| mark occomore wrote: | | Is the white stuff landing on your door step this weekend? |
It has landed on ours today.
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ruddlescat
Joined: 16 Sep 2010
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Location: Near Chester
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| Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 10:23 pm Post subject: |
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I actually wish we had got some snow here today - but all we ever get is rain,rain,rain - and the whole place is flooded out yet again
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FleetingEileenM
Joined: 30 Mar 2010
Posts: 5767
Location: Hampshire
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| Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 1:05 pm Post subject: |
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We had a light covering on Monday but it melted away during the afternoon.
It's lovely and sunny here today .
Ruddles, do you live on a floodplain? You seem to have so much trouble when it rains heavily. |
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RockitRon
Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 7646
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| Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 3:01 pm Post subject: |
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Snowed here yesterday.
We were over at Whittlesey for the Straw Bear festival weekend and it stayed dry but very cold. Yesterday the junior version, by the staff and pupils of Ramsey Junior School, took place in something of a snowstorm...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHXp2cfkRXk&feature=youtu.be
....and we drove home in it afterwards. Cambridgeshire in whiteout is not very pretty!
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Ron
Last edited by RockitRon on Wed Jan 16, 2013 12:08 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Toggy
Joined: 18 Aug 2008
Posts: 1239
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| Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 9:09 pm Post subject: |
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Considering how much we were supposed to get in Cambridgeshire yesterday it turned out to be a non event.
A little bit in the morning, a heavy 2 hr shower in the afternoon then nothing.
Surely, surely it wasn't the weather people over dramatising again |
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SantaFefan
Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 11258
Location: top of the cliffs in Norfolk
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| Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 9:04 pm Post subject: |
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I can't believe how much the weather situation has varied here in Norfolk..
Yesterday, my chippy received a call from his partner on a coach returning from Gatwick.. she said the coach was stuck and surrounded by abandoned cars.. she probably wasn't going to make it home.
( I think she was phoning from Newmarket way )
The outskirts of Norwich were closed off including the Thickthorn roundabout..
There we were in Great Yarmouth, 20 miles from Norwich in glorious sunshine and blue skies!
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ruddlescat
Joined: 16 Sep 2010
Posts: 18010
Location: Near Chester
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| Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 9:11 pm Post subject: |
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| FleetingEileenM wrote: | We had a light covering on Monday but it melted away during the afternoon.
It's lovely and sunny here today .
Ruddles, do you live on a floodplain? You seem to have so much trouble when it rains heavily. |
As I may have mentioned before Eileen I live adjacent to a river which is a tributary of the River Dee
Most of the time it's a really pleasant spot but when it rains heavily the river bursts its banks and floods the bottom third of my garden
The problem is that some idiot who owned the house previously thought it would be a good idea to build a garage right next to the lane - and of course normally that would make sense but not when the land upon which it stands can get flooded to a depth of around six feet
I keep intending to move the garage to a position nearer the house on higher ground but the problem is that I just never seem to have time to address the problem
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Angela W
Joined: 11 Dec 2006
Posts: 7202
Location: North Yorkshire
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| Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2013 10:40 am Post subject: |
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We have still got snow here and it isn't likely to thaw any time soon. Yesterday we got up to a temperature of -8 degrees and the warmest it went up to was -5. This morning it is still -10 degrees and is the sort of cold that when you touch anything metal outside, your skin sticks to it. We have ice inside most of our windows and the condensation problem from previous winters has returned to our wardrobes. What joy (and this is with the central heating running)!
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becky sharp
Joined: 01 Dec 2008
Posts: 6814
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| Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2013 3:05 pm Post subject: |
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| Angela W wrote: | | We have still got snow here and it isn't likely to thaw any time soon. Yesterday we got up to a temperature of -8 degrees and the warmest it went up to was -5. This morning it is still -10 degrees and is the sort of cold that when you touch anything metal outside, your skin sticks to it. We have ice inside most of our windows and the condensation problem from previous winters has returned to our wardrobes. What joy (and this is with the central heating running)! |
Gosh Angela ....it sounds like Siberia to me. |
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