UK battered by gales

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I just had a picture of that in my head.

It doesn't work out, you get thrown two or three meters away from the door.

Awwww, poor baby, did it hurt?

No, it was orgasmic.

I was going to mention something about Masochists, then i realised you were probably being sarcastic.

Finally got home about forty minutes ago. Set off to go to my course in Trafford, south Manchester this morning. I live in the middle of Lancashire. Which means it's about a 70-75 mile round trip. Went down the road to Grimsargh (a small village that is mainly used as a route to get to Preston) and was told that there was a big accident. So we tried to go an opposite way through Goosnargh and then on to Broughton. It was bloody hard work. It must have took us nearly an hour to drive about three miles. The taxi driver who takes me to this course on a Thursday tried to ring my mother to call it off but she wasn't answering and by the time he did get through to her I was about five minutes away anyway. Anyroad, eventually we get on the M6. Just past the towns of Bolton and Westhoughton there is the difficulties with getting into Manchester. That took about another 45 minutes or so. Eventually I reached the Henshaws college. The day officially starts at 09:30. I ended up in the room, after sorting myself out, at about 10:20, meaning that I missed a good half of that morning's lesson. In the afternoon we were in the kitchen observing the strong winds outside and a few of us witnessed a tree being blown down. Fortunately it was neither on a car nor anyone else. The worst was yet to come though...

The day finished at about 15:20 or so. The woman who runs the course told me that the taxi driver was stuck in traffic. OK, fair enough. So I went downstairs to wait for him. Most of the rest of the people on the course got their taxis fairly quick, living in different parts of Manchester. At about 16:00 or so there was only me and one other chap left, who was from Bolton. He couldn't get his wife to pick him up so he was waiting for his mother to come and get him. So the clock slowly ticked away. Me, the guy from Bolton, the woman who runs the course and the bloke on the desk stood around talking for not a lot for another 50 minutes or so. This dragged. A lot. The taxi driver who was taking me home to the heart of Lancashire had actually got lost right in the middle of central Manchester where it was absolutely gridlocked and he couldn't move at all so rang my mum, who basically told him to give up and go home. My mum then rang her friend who lives in Manchester and asked her if she could pick me up, which she did. I then rang her mobile (she wasn't at home) and she told me this. Anyway, when it was nearly 17:00, the other man's mother finally turning up after battling with the horrendous traffic around the Manchester area. So it was basically me and the person running the course for the next 20 minutes. We talked about the course and how she was going to adapt it to better suit my needs. Finally, when it was about 17:20 (so it took her about an hour to get here when it should only have been a short ten minute drive) my mother's friend finally turned up and took me to her vehicle. I got in and we basically spent the next hour or so in traffic, using back roads whenever we could. Eventually, we got to her house at about 18:30. Me and my mother stopped a little while at her house and subsequently had a trouble-free journey home which I reached at about 19:30.

So there is my story. It was quite a difficult day for me but nothing compared to what some people have had to put up with. When you hear that several people have been killed in these conditions it puts it all nicely into perspective for you. I would put good money on the idea that if any government of any particular stripe (mainstream and publicly acceptable, of course - not the Nazis or Communists!) were to introduce a sensible plan to sort out these sorts of delays with transport when they happen would win a general election by a landslide.

It has been a very severe storm. I just heard on the news that ten people died as a result of falling trees and walls being blown down. The pictures from London showed people hanging onto lamp-posts to stop getting blown down the road!

On a lighter note when the wind was at its strongest around here, there was actually a man on a bicycle trying to cycle up our street. His legs were moving very quickly but he was going forwards very slowly against the wind. If he'd stopped pedalling he'd have shot backward down the street at about 70 mph.

Was he a schoolteacher?

Who, the man on a bike? Not sure, why?

MelancholyBunny: So you live in Iraq then? Or Ulster? Don't you think it's a bit ambiguous?

I'm pissed off, bleeping Jack McConnell (however you spell his name, i really don't care) keeps on going on about the sectarian problems in Scotland and how it's the "Home of Sectarianism" puh-lease.

I was trying to be nice about it and commented to my father that we may have sectarianism but at least we don't have the KKK, he informed me that it was started by a Scottish guy, now my bubbles burst.

Maybe i'll put in brackets, (Scotland), but i rather like the ambiguity, it confuses people.

It was a reference to the Wizard of Oz, wasn't the evil lady on the bike who turned into the Wicked Witch a teacher? Or was she just a nasty neighbour?

I can't remember. It's a few years since I've seen that film.

Is the Orange a problem there? I heard it can be.

Depends where you live, when they march it can be a problem, a lot of people lock their doors and stay inside on that day, but i think it's worse mainly in Glasgow. Parts of it are like that place in America (Detroit?) with all the gangs, the only difference is there's a lot more knife crime.

Lucky me, i was raised non-denominational.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6272193.stm

pictures...
http://news.sky.com/skynews/picture_gallery/picture_gallery/0,,30000-1247942,00.html

or

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1247998,00.html
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13563763,00.html
http://news.sky.com/skynews/google/map/generic/0,,13563631,00.html

Last edited by Davidufo on 18 Jan 2007, 7:49 pm, edited 2 times in total.