A Stiff Upper Lip

There are some places, a bloke will not boldly go, in fact he won’t go there at all – and I can assure you, it requires a stiff upper lip for anyone to investigate these dark and noisome places.

And before any blokes spring to the defence, and proclaim how new age you all are, don’t bother – the caveman lives





There is a Land behind the Cooker, where festering substances have parties and celebrate their long life.
I do not exaggerate, I only observe.
Inside the cooker?

Forget it, blokes just burn stuff and wonder why the oven is sending out smoke signals.





What I like is the look of blank surprise (but very faint interest) on a bloke’s face, when you inform him that parts of his cave are supporting a whole new eco-system, most of them alien to human life



Beam me up, Scotty.
Yep.

'Winds, veering to moderate'

Sod the Foodies, we know what we likes.

Marmalade sarnis, along with our famous chip butties, are truly English, and Marmite may be good for you, but us Brits stand paw to paw, with our famous bear (see the previous blog for enlightenment on that one)

Some things always take us home, wherever we may be

Before the era of day-long television, we only had the radio, so I can understand why the exiles amongst us, still tune in for Classic FM or the BBC’s World Service.

Part of that life was the Shipping Forecast that was first broadcast on the British Home Service, now on Radio 4 (1967) As a child I used to listen to the modulated tones of the broadcaster, as he went through the areas around our coasts.

‘Dogger, Fisher….’ wondering if those sailors tossing around in the sea were all right, and would they get home?




‘Cromarty and Forth…Winds veering to moderate’
That was good, the winds would veer, and the rain would come along later.

The names have a poetry all their own ‘Viking’ ‘Rockall’ ‘Shannon’. We used to have ‘Finisterre’ but we lost that in 2002.

To the Spanish, would you believe?

‘A name known to millions of radio listeners after appearing in broadcasts every day for 53 years has passed into history. Finisterre ranks alongside Dogger, Fisher and German Bight as one of the most distinctive areas of sea included in the BBC's shipping forecast, but from Sunday at noon it will be heard no longer. Feb 2002’ (BBC News)





Just because of the bloody Spanish – they wanted the name, so now that area is named ‘FitzRoy’, and if you think I begrudge the Spanish their ‘Finnisterre’ damn right, I do.

Captain FitzRoy became a governor of New Zealand, so they should have named somewhere in New Zealand after him, if you think about it. Or maybe the whole country.

Only fair isn’t it?

And left ‘Finnisterre’ where it should be.





Yep

Notes and Bibliography

1) The first weather forecast broadcast on radio was a script prepared by the Met Office and read by an announcer on November 14, 1922, from Marconi House, London. From March 26, 1923, this became a daily service.

2) Captain Robert FitzRoy

Robert FitzRoy is best known as the captain of 'HMS Beagle' After a brief interlude as Governor of New Zealand, FitzRoy went on to develop an interest in meteorology becoming the founder of the UK Meteorological Office and inventor of the weather forecast.

He invented the earliest form of the Mercury Barometer. In parallel with the issuing of forecasts and the gathering of meteorological data, FitzRoy also distributed free barometers to poor fishing communities



I recommend this book by Charllie Connelly, available from Amazon

Attention All Shipping: A Journey Round the Shipping Forecast (Radio 4 Book of the Week) by Charlie Connelly. May 2005.

A List of Shipping Areas
Pub Quiz

Charts and Maps, very informative
Marine weather

Met Office

BBC Weather

The lowdown on just how the Shipping Forecast is produced
Media UK