Don't Blame It On The Weatherman!

29th May

Ok! I'm going to kick off today with Matt's first words on his first forecast!!!! 'After all that heavy rain much of us saw during yesterday, there is a bit of good news today, it's looking a lot drier and brighter, and  perhaps a bit warmer as we see those brighter conditions develop after a rather grey start.'
Some showers may develop in the afternoon and there may be some potential for them to be on the heavier side apparently!!!!!!
I wish I'd heard those words!! And I wish I'd seen the green patches on the map!!! How drenched did I get walking home form work tonight?????? Oh yes! Most drenched! When I left work it was raining but not too bad, about 20 minutes in it got heavy!! Very heavy! And stayed heavy for the last 30 minutes of my walk!!! Only one dry piece of clothing on me by the time I got home! And I did have an umbrella, cos I was expecting showers!! Not a monsoon however!! Lmao. They are talking about renaming The Common the Southampton Lake District!!! The ducks were swimming in grass! But I did make it through the common to then find the roads had become rivers!!! Squelchy shoes!! Small umbrella so one very wet jacket sleeve!! Not to mention wet trousers and a soaking back pack dripping down my back!! I've not seen anything like it for ages.

And there! Look at Matt in the Sunshine at 8.18! Well, I have to admit it was lovely here this morning for a number of hours, I sat outside for my lunch in a hazy-ish sunshine til 1 o clock and I think it steadily went downhill after that, was pouring down by about 3.30, had eased off by 4.30 when I left work, then was heavy again in no time!!!!!

All the way home I was thinking perhaps I had been so distracted by the weatherman that I didn't see the weather! But I felt sure I got a glimpse of the map at some point! Hence I only took an umbrella as opposed to full wet weather gear!

Well, never mind! Lucky my knowing George has given me a healthy sense of humour about 'bad' weather!

Rumour has it that  the weekend shouldnt be too bad at all! But I'm kinda scared now and may carry my wet weather gear with me for the foreseeable future!!!!!

Well, despite the weather going a little 'off-track' today, you still gotta love him doncha!

Looking forward to an explanation tomorrow!

28th May

No wet weather gear for Matt this morning! Very brave, especially when he's predicting torrential downpours!
Talk today on Breakfast about a curse on anyone who dares to mess with Shakespeare's bones!!!!! So, by way of introduction to the 7.15 forecast, Bill: 'If you even talk about removing the bones of the bard it'll rain for 40 days and 40 nights.......won't it ....Matt?' Matt: (laughs) 'What have you done Bill? Yes, it feels like that at the moment but we need the rain, we always need a few spells of rain throughout the summer just to keep those resevoirs topped up and the gardeners and the farmers happy'.

So, apart from lots of warnings about lots of rain, not a lot else to report today really.

27^th May

Matt was still in wet weather gear this morning. For the 6.45 forecast Bill asked how the weather was looking, Matt: ‘Less of a north/south divide today, more of a soggy sandwich.(Lmao) We’ve got brighter skies for the far north and south of the country, in between though is where we’ll see the rain’.

 After the 8.20 forecast Bill asked: ‘Matt, can we have our summer back?’ Matt: ‘Ummm, not quite yet, you’ve got to deal with rain for a few more days, even into the start of the weekend, I’ll see what I can do though’ Bill: ‘Alright’. Louise: ‘You know its good fr your garden’ Bill: ‘Yeah…..there’s good…and there’s drenched’

Having not seen or heard and news yesterday it wasn’t til I got to work today I heard about Southampton train station being flooded! Wow! The petrol station on Millbrook Road ( a major road near the docks) was also flooded but that’s not quite so unusual. I’ve not heard of the station being flooded before, but then I’ve only recently moved back after being away for 20 years so it may have.

Just before the 8.50 forecast Bill was asking people to text in, and he said: ‘You might like to text Matt and ask him where the summers gone. I’d like to know too. Unless of course you live in the north, then of course, you’re perfectly happy’ Matt: ‘Hello there, yes, lovely day across the north yesterday, 19 degrees in western Scotland, and almost 16 hours of sunshine in Shetland, and again today probably one of the sunnier spots’

Yay! I have an internet connection today!!! It was out for the whole of yesterday evening!!! Grrrr.

Anyway! More Matt tomorrow! There might be a slight delay in blogging though as I'm out tomorrow evening.

26th May

Awww, poor Matt, bank holiday Monday and he's out in the pouring rain in the Blue Peter garden! He's his usual cheerful lovely self though under that big orange breakfast umbrella.  I'm quite torn between being upset its raining on a day off and relieved I don't have to go out in it. Quite nice to lie in bed, all warm and cosy, listening to the rain and watch Matt on TV, can't complain. Why I'm awake at 6am I do not know!!!

A great north/south divide today with the weather, for the good stuff, head north!
First forecast of the day, Southampton got a mention as its going to reach 18 degrees here today apparently!!! (And it did too! I sat outside for at least 15 minutes today! lol)

I think they've got the trainees working on Breakfast this holiday! A fair  few little technical issues this morning! Matt turned into a pink screen with a severe weather warning in the middle at one point!
Matts severe weather warnings just appeared in the middle of a report on camping in the Mendip Hills. That poor reporter was without an umbrella even but he did have a campervan and sausages. But no sausages for Matt.

Chris introducing the 6.48 forecast: 'And now to the most unpopular man today, on a bank holiday Monday, Matt with the weather. Any good news? Please!!' Matt: 'There is Chris, I will start with some good news, particularly over the north of the country, you've been saved from the worst over this bank holiday weekend, barely a drop of rain to come, a dry and fine day with some sunshine'.

Chris introducing 7.22 forecast: 'Poor old Graham there, there's one person to blame, *points at Matt*  Him! Matt: 'I told you before I'm just the messenger its not my fault, at least he gets to be indoors with some sausages as well'
At the end of that forecast, Chris: 'Thanks Matt, I know its not your fault, sorry to have a go at you, (turns to Louise) gotta have a go at someone though.'

See!! The finger pointing!! Naughty Chris!!

How could he blame poor Matt?? Still, I was quite pleased to see Chris on this morning, at least he does have a personality, unlike some people we could mention!

A very nice start to my 3 day working week! I can only hope that Matt can materalise some rather better weather by Friday for my day trip to 'sunny' (yes, it will be!!!! not to mention lovely and warm with no wind) Brighton! Fingers crossed anyway!

More Matt tomorrow! Happy days!

21st May

As far as I'm aware there was no 10.30 forecast last, so Matts first one was 11 o clock (way past my bedtime!). He was warning us of another chilly start but a dry and bright day to follow. A fairly quiet weather time at the moment, but don't get too comfy!! The bank holiday weekend is looming!! Showers starting to get into the southwest on Thursday.
There's a high pressure to the north east of us keeping the Atlantic low pressure 'out in the wings', but, never fear, its acoming!!!
I saw the local forecast for London this morning and I think I'll go there for the weekend, it looks a bit better than here. Actually I will be there on Saturday anyway, but back the same day. Maybe if we pray a lot we could make that nasty Low pressure disappear!
No banter at all last night, and Matt as lovely and professional as ever, so not much else for me to report really. I notice on the TBT yesterday that Matt was due to be working the nightshift with a shadow last night, I don't know if that shadow materalised into a person and I don't have time right now to check the JL show as I'm out tonight, but will do later.

Just what we'd like the forecast to look like all weekend!!

 20th May

Coldest night of the week last night!! I was so annoyed at having to go to work this morning I don't think I even noticed the cold! Very unusual for me. Not noticing the cold that is (not wanting to go to work is perfectly usual!)
Last night Matt was advising us that if we get 'ourselves in the sunshine it shouldn't feel too bad'. 16 degrees for the first day of the Chelsea Flower Show.
At the end of the 11 o clock forecast we 'almost' got a wink and a 'see you in a bit', very casual!

I managed to miss Matt doing my local forecast on Breakfast this morning because some gezzer was reporting from Moscow!!!!! Why????? Nothing is even happening til tomorrow! I am not happy! The local news and forecast was sooooo late that the dvd switched off just as the forecast started. Matt was just saying it might be a bit chilly waiting at the bus stop or train platform, then he was cut off in his prime! 

Susan Powell was on JL last night but apparently her and Matt had been thinking up 'garden songs' eg. Wham - The hedge of heaven, and 'You're not a lawn'!! So on the back of that I'd like to add 'I think we're a lawn now'

Matt seems very happy with his stars!
(if this all turns out in different font size I apologise, I have no idea what's up with it tonight!!)

18th May

Matt was back in pink today and forecasting a nice sunny start to the week though not for long and a bit chilly!!
Discussions this morning on whether being called 'sweetie' is offensive, after Barack Obama called a reporter it!!! So on the lead into the 7.45 forecast Charlie kicked off by saying to Suzanna: 'Matt wouldn't mind if you called him sweetie, would he? Suzanna to Matt: 'What do you think darling? Matt: 'oh anything, call me anything Suzanna yes. Whats the world coming to? Nothing wrong with a bit of  a 'sweetie'  eh'
Quite! Madness! The ticket man on the train called me that last month, and then said 'oh, Sorry, I'm not supposed to say that am I'. We both said how ridiculous it was, and he touched me on the shoulder too, and said he wasn't aloud to do that either!! Lmao. Good day for me!!!!
After the 'sweetie' remark Matt was smiling 'a lot', was he getting 'sweetie' comments in his ear do we think?????
And Lmao, I'm hearing a lot about 'St Georges Channel' lately!!  Also mentioned on the 7.45 forecast.

Matt was later looking very smart with multi-coloured pinky tie and suit on 'The News Channel' straight after Breakfast.
Now, will he be back tomorrow at some point?? Hmm...

17th May

Lucky I set the dvd for Breakfast last night eh!! Unfortunately another Breakfast weekend with Charlie, so no banter to report.

When I got home from work last night I thought it was going to be a quiet weekend. Wasn't really expecting Matt on Breakfast, then my internet connection was down too, and I had no plans at all, so I thought it would be a reading weekend. Alas, No! It's a Matt on Breakfast weekend and 'Thank God!!!' my internet connection came back!! Phew!

Lovely to wake up to Matt this morning, a very nice surprise. The weather perhaps not such a nice surprise! But at least it's not raining here....yet! Some pretty heavy rain heading for south west england this morning!! Matt has pretty colours on his map and flashes of lightning! And we had isobars today as well!

7.45 forecast, Matt: 'From the shorts and T-shirt weather of last weekend to jumper and waterproofs weather of this weekend, a huge comparison with what we've seen during the week'.
8.15 Forecast, Matt: 'I think only the hardiest of us will be heading for the beach today, a much cloudier day than recent days and, yes, there will be some rain around, for some some heavy downpours for others nothing more than a few spots here and there'.

With the forecast today you'd almost think this weekend was bank holiday weekend! Perhaps we can get the rubbish out of the way and get some niceness back by next weekend??????

After Breakfast, Matt was Vernon Kayes show on Radio 1

I'm very lucky I got blogged today, my internet connection has been down most of the day!!! Good old Virgin Media!!! I do like a reliable service!! Wonder where I could find one!

And more Matt tomorrow! Yay!

15th May

Matt again on the old nightshift. Not on his own this time. Kirsty to keep him company.  Wearing a blue tie to match the sun  But bad news on the weather front. Cold and rain but storms too but none for me, or none that I heard but I did have a great sleep last night, anything could have happened, but no-one else mentioned anything today so I'll guess it was all quiet around here. Missing out AGAIN!!

A bit of a technical hitch on the first forecast of Matts night. Is it Helen or is it....Matt!

There was a little rain on the way to work this morning, but when I went out lunchtime and after work all was dry, just dull and cold in comparison to our recent high temps.
11.30 forecast falling an item about the Post Office: Tim says: 'Matt, lots of rain in your crystal ball there' (crystal ball???) Matt: 'It's not looking very great at all, you wouldn't want to be out doing the post run first thing in the morning, and a disturbed nights sleep for some of us tonight'.
And wow! No weather at all at 12.55 am!

I think this is as close as I'll get to seeing lightning!

And some stormy weather for Mr G and the southwest!

No more Matt tonight

13th May

Matt is back on nightshift tonight on News24. Great to see him again, I feel like I haven't seen him 'live' for ages, as I didn't catch any live forecasts even over the bank holiday weekend with having a visitor to stay.
I've been away at a conference in Newcastle for the last two days and what a shock that was!! We left Southampton with the numbers in the high 20's and arrived in Newcastle Monday afternoon to 12 degrees!!!!! Gutted or what!?!  Today was also cloudy (thin and very low judging by the flight home tonight) and it was still bloody cold!!! We arrived back in Southampton to 17 degrees which was not nearly so bad. BUT......having seen Matts forecasts it aint gonna last much longer!!! Wednesday sees the last of it. No fair!!! It has been fabulous recently. Just what the doctor ordered!!

And after a battle with the dvd player and two discs that simply refused to work I am now all set and really had better get some sleep. In true conference style I didn't get to bed til nearly 2am yesterday morning so am a little tired!! So just to recap, it was great to walk in the door and see Matt on tv less than 15 minutes later! Result! Welcome home!

Well, got lots of catching up to do now!! I had a chill out evening last evening, my  first bit of time to myself since Sunday, so now I got to get down to it!

Wednesday was another lovely day, but the last one lots more cloud over the bulk of the country.  We had isobars tonight as well showing us that 'lovely' low pressure around the Bay of Biscay.

On my local forecast Matt was giving me showers for wednesday afternoon!! (as I'm writing this retrospectively I am happy to confirm we got no rain until overnight, phew!) Most of the day was just fab. I was looking forward to the storms coming up from France but they went AWOL as well

Now Matt was earning his dollars because not only was he doing News24 but chatting to JL on Radio 2 as well, doing the work of two people apparently, in the weather centre all on his own, ahhhh. So here is the audio clip, with Matt and the blue sunshine and the scary pizza delivery guy!

11th May

Oh dear!!! It seems that Matt has been on Five Live this weekend!! And thats oh dear for two reasons!! Firstly, its Five Live and secondly I was on a trip to London yesterday so didn't hear him

A good day for stripping off the clothes again today though according to Matt. He's right too, I was out in the garden just before 11 this morning and our the temperature in the garden was readin 25.8!!!!

I only heard one forecast today, partly due to not waking up til about 10.30 and partly because my computer is operating sooooooooooooooo badly that I can barely open a webpage never mind get BBC iplayer to work!
I am so far unsuccessfully try to check BBCi UK and world forecasts but it just aint happening!

7th May

Mr Taylor has well and truly caught me out today. After only managing around 3 hours sleep last night I didn't get to check the tbt page before leaving for work this morning, so no dvd set!  I have been quite lucky in that I saw him on BBCi UK forecast and a News24 forecast as well. And he's wearing my fav tie today! I did hear him say there were top temperatures of 25 yesterday. Yippee! and it was 25 in my garden too, very nice sat out there reading my book and topping up the tan. Absolutely gutted to be at work today.
Also the tree pollen count is still high at the moment apparently and Matt says 'if you're reaching for the tissues, thats probably why'
LMFAO! No comment......no, really, I'm saying nothing! Apart from, after seeing 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall' on Saturday and my favourite line 'Are those happy tissues or sad tissues?' I really can't hear the word 'tissues' right now without laughing.............. a lot!!! Rude!!

So, due to my inefficiencies I really can't say anymore today so I will leave it at that.

5th May

I was kinda hoping Matt wasn't going to be on early this morning because I needed a lie-in after my busy weekend, but alas, I woke up at 10.30 to find Matt was on morning/early afternoon shift. I only saw Rob McElwee on News 24 ( the BBC news channel is just way too long to type!! Do the BBC not realise we are heading towards text speak not making things way longer than they need to be!?!?!? Really bad change there! So, in defiance I should continue to call it News24.)
Anyway, I suspect Matt was probably on Radio 4, and I did see him on BBCi doing the UK weather, and boy was he chirpy!!! I can only assume he's had a lot better weather than I've had! I have been trying to upload it to youtube, but so far without success.
I'm thinking my computer needs an overhaul!! Everything I ask it to do takes about a thousand years!

4th May

Not a pretty picture on Matts weather map today. As I am writing this retrospectively I did hear there was some quite spectacular storms down the west coast. Me, jealous? Yes!!! Not fair! Where's my storms?
Not the brightest day I have to say, lots of grey cloud and even some very light rain in the afternoon, so playing the wii seemed the best option!
No real banter, always fairly unlikely with Charlie around.
I did manage to see Matt on BBCi today on the world weather. And of course a couple of forecasts after Breakfast on the channel formerly know as News 24!!!! Although the 9.55 forecast was the 9.30 forecast replayed.

But check out Tuesday!!!! Looking forward to that!

3rd May

Today Matt appears back in his old slot on Breakfast. Lovely and bubbly this morning and bringing us a mixture of sunshine and showers. Tomorrow not looking good for anyone living down the central part of the country. (me!!)

For the 8.15 forecast in his usual chirpy fashion: 'When the sun does come out it going to feel quite warm out there, but lets me realistic its a bank holiday weekend, you'll probably need your rainjacket at some point or another, and there will be should be some of that rain around today but it should be fairly light, fairly patchy and mainly towards western parts of the country'. And all this because we have a low pressure 'lurking' out in the Atlantic!! Grrrrr. But we also have a high pressure to the east dragging in winds from a south to south easterly direction making it feel a little warmer. 'Down across the bulk of England it will be mostly dry but don't be surprised if you see a few spots on your windscreen if you're heading out in the car'.  Personally I don't like to head out in the car if it can possibly be avoided so I'll look out for spots on the bus windscreen which should have been a train really but metamorphosised due to 'engineering works'!!!!!

Basically, its all a bit messy out there and anything could happen!!!! My words rather than Matts this time!!

8.45 forecast: 'Wherever you are across the country, yes there will be some sunshine this bank holiday weekend, but the clues in, its a bank holiday weekend, there's also going to be a little bit of rain.'

Matt did say it would be a mild evening and it really was! I came out the cinema at almost 11pm and it felt milder than it had all day as the wind had dropped quite significantly. I almost felt like I was walking around in Spain! Almost!!!

Matt with the pretty bluebells in the woods today.

Matt on VK 030508

And being a Breakfast Saturday Matt was of course on VK's show on Radio 1 too (most of it is a bit quiet being as how I have to have all the volumes up full blast to get a decent sound recording but its currently 1.30am!!).
I'm sure he was probably also on BBCi but being out all day I didn't have the chance to check.