Friday 18th February 2022

Modern science in the field of weather means that it could tell that a kink in weather front in the middle of the ocean two days ago was going to develop into the biggest storm to cross the UK for three decades.

Satellite images showed hour by hour, the depression getting deeper and deeper, and the forecast was for 80mph winds here in St Maggies. In the end, the all time wind speed was broken at The Needles on the Isle of Wight, and here we got battered.

For a country that experiences mostly benign weather, we are rather obsessed with it.

Douglas Adams suggested we do this to stop our brains working.

There may be some truth in that.

But sometimes there is real scary weather here. And Friday we had Storm Eunice swept through causing havoc and damage, though there was a lot of warnings, and those of us who did did not travel.

Joyous that, during the day, my Twitter feed filled up with people watching and tweeting the best lines from Big Jet TV on YouTube.

Jeff films jets landing at Heathrow, and so far so good, but the winds on Friday made for thrilling viewing, as did hearing his live conversations as TV stations across the country asked him for an interview and footage.

Channel 4 are coming across the field.

Let's see how China do now. GO ON SON!

HERE COMES THE A380 FOLKS! BIGGEST AIRCRAFT IN THE WORLD. IT'S A DOUBLE DECKER. SO MANY PEOPLE STILL DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE A380. THIS IS GONNA BE AWESOME.

The Big Daddy from Qatar!

That Jeff was such a good bloke and engaging made the afternoon pass quickly while the winds howled outside.

The storm began at two in the morning and built during the rest of the night, so that by the time we got up, it was wild. And would get only wilder.

We lay in bed until after six, meaning I had only just over half an hour before work was due to start, Jools got ready for work and left, and I logged on for the weekly social meeting. I put the bins out, and once had to run down the street to collect the wheelie bin after the wind sent it toppling, then skidding towards the fields.

From then, the storm peaked here, and the wind howled and raged for some five hours. Our roof just about held, or the flat roof did, although some trimming did come down to cause me some concern, but that was it.

By the time Jools came home, the peak had passed and winds dropped twenty mph, and mocking us, the sun was shining as a few clouds skidded across the sky.

After the music quiz, we go over the Jen's for cards with Sylv and John. Jen has made a huge pan of chilli, so we ate well and I drak wine.

And then we played cards, where a single game of Meld took some two and a half hours, ending at half nine. But I win both the bumper last hand and the pot for lowest points.

Jools drives us home, and there was almost no other traffic about. Quite the odd thing.