test please delete

[NotAllThere]

Yesterday, walked up from 795m to 1275m from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen. That's a height difference of 480m. 1575 feet over 1.5 miles. (The route we'd planned to use coming down from Scheidegg is closed due to snow). It started to snow while we were up there, buying our curry. On the way back, we only just caught the train - the conductor very kindly let us buy our tickets online on the way down. Being Swiss, she did have to instruct us we're supposed to buy ten minutes before departure.

Temperature 2.3 °C
Relative humidity 100%
Pressure 955 hPa

Later today - -6°C, since we'll be at 3000m. It's brillian sunshine all day. I can see the mountain peaks clearly today - there's no cloud.

Last night had the curry (of course). Not bad, but as ever a bit bland. (Swissies can't tolerate hot food much). Watched Innocent Moves and a bit of Skyfall.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Grey.

Sunless.

Dry.

Windy.

Polleny++.

Warmer at 17 deg in here.

1014 mBar, 29.94 in Hg, 53% RH.

Monday.

Telex machine glowing particularly brightly this morning, Roy, and my leg hurts.

<hiatus>

And, with that, the horizontal rain begins at 09:25 BST.

The blossom is blowing off the apple tree like snow.

<hiatus>

Freecell score: 89%, running average 84%.

<hiatus>

Walk walked in the raging gale.

It rained a bit but not enough to require the umbrella.

Rather cold though, an extra layer would have been welcome.

Sneezing now.

The barometer is now showing 1010 mBar.

Lunch: poached tomato and scrambled egg on Morrisons wholemeal sunflower & spelt toast, 2 x bramble jelly sandwiches on same, a yellow corner yog, 0.91 pints of good Glengettie tea.

Entertainment: the remainder of the commentary on that Episode IV thing, wherein I dozed rather a lot.

Trucking Hell S2 E1: looks like a Rory free zone: artic straddling the crashbarrier on the central reservation, Lantern towing a broken down refuse lorry in that Laahndahn, Jim struggling to find a way to tow a tractor (agricultural), naturally he succeeds, though fortunately only had to go about 200 yards.

The artic is recovered off the crashbarrier.

Lantern's "Pretty Boy" Jason is dealing with an artic in a ditch in the dark with an old Ford Focus in the trailer, the driver & his mate having legged it.


In other news it's pissing down & blowing a gale.

It's still pissing down & blowing a gale.

Barometer showing 1000 mBar at 16:21.

Still still pissing down & blowing a gale.

<hiatus>

Still still still pissing down & blowing a gale.

At 18:15 it's 997 mBar on the barometer.

Tea: more roast chicken with bacon (the sausages got eaten before the meal was prepared, meh though they might have been ), the last of the tinned peaches, a yog, 0.91 pints of good Glengettie tea.

Entertainment: well there's a Traffic Cops on at the moment but I think I've seen it before so not giving it much attention.

Wish I'd fettled the door to the salting house a bit more coz the puddle inside is back.

In other other news, the door mat which generally gets one end lifted up by the wind tunnel effect of the side passage has managed to fly far enough to reach the little privet hedge.

Which is a first.

<hiatus>

Sun came out, it's setting now.

Sky is blue in parts.

Pressure is 996 mBar at 20:10.

Entertainment: Episode V, apparently, wherein stuff gets struck back.

NCIS S16 E15 "Crossing the Line". Man overboard.

Commentary on bits of Episode V.

Rich Hall's Working for the American Dream.

In other other news, the barometer reached 995 mBar at 22:45.

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

I awoke suddenly at 7:55am, my internal clock apparently thinking "It's Monday, shouldn't you be up now?" But as it's a Bank Holiday, I went back to sleep again

Both then and when I then awoke again about an hour later, it was sunny out. But within about ten minutes it completely clouded over, so we're back to a grey sort of day, currently 9°C and not expected to get any better than 10°, 1004/1012mB, and a strong likelihood of rain in the afternoon

[ladymuck]

Morning all

Overcast and raining. Although it's quite fine rain and it took a bit of squinting to see it from my vantage point. Currently 7 degrees ('feels like' 3) and that's the high for the day. Rain is expected to continue all day. Weather app says the barometer is at 1005 mBar and I don't know if that's adjusted for sea level or not.

if it were sunny today, it would remain so until 21:46 a full 40 minutes longer than at my gaff in London.

Today's Kantar diary fact is:
'Aorun zhaoi' a Theropod dinosaur dating from 161 million years ago is discovered in China 2013

[NickFitz]

Links are up

[NickFitz]

Lunch has been leftovers: a bit of crispy aromatic lamb with plum sauce and pancakes, followed by a bit of refried beef chow mein

It's been raining pretty steadily here, though it seems to be taking a break right now. Looks very windy out there too

[NotAllThere]

Once again, our trip turned out rather differently from as planned. We went up in the cable car from Lauterbrunnen to Grütschalp, then Grütschalp to Mürren by mountain train. Walked to the bottom of the Schilthorn cable car, bought tickets (about £60 each) from the machine, headed to the cable car... and it's closed for maintenance. I hailed a member of staff walking nearby, and he talked to the operators, and it was arranged that if we went to Stechelberg valley station, we'd get a refund.

Great. We decided to walk the 4.2km path, 724m descent from Mürren to Stechelberg. Quite steep but fantastic views of the Eiger and other mountains. Got to Gimmelwald and... the path further is closed. Ponder ... ponder... I know, we'll get the cable car from Gimmelwald to Stechelberg. It's closed for maintenance. But there is a van that will shuttle us up to Mürren where we can get a cable car down. Van is supposed to hold nine people. We arrived at the top with 12... otoh, there is literally nothing on the road except the van and the odd tractor and snowplough.

Finally get to Stechelberg, money refunded easily (he was expecting us) and we walked back to Lauterbrunned, stopping only to pick up some goat salami and cheese from a farm vending maching. Only one of the salamis we bought go stuck, so I had to call on the farmhouse to get help.

On the bright side, we had a great walk in brilliant sunshine, lovely views, friendly locals and my German really seems to be improving.

Tonight dinner is left-over curry, spaghetti, spam and baked beans. Ents unknown. We leave from home tomorrow at 9am. So glad to have had this short break. Entirely alcohol free as well.

[NickFitz]

The weather has got rainier and windier. I've decided I'm not going for a walk

Some more clothes that have been stashed away for ages have been washed, so at least I got something done

They include a couple of respectable shirts in decent nick, so I'll hang on to them in case of having to travel down to Whitehall to be seen to be working, should the tousled scumbag decide to force the Civil Service back to the office before this gig ends

[NickFitz]

There was a few minutes when all outside was suffused with reddish-gold glow, as clearing cloud in the west led to a vibrant sunset which reflected down from the still-overcast could in the east. Looked really nice

Now it's grey and getting dark, though it seems as if the wind has dropped a fair a bit and it's continuing to clear from the south and west - just in time to make it cold overnight

[NickFitz]

Tea: Sainsbury's chunky battered haddock, with chips and beans. Very tasty

Accompanied, of course, by a bit of Trucking Hell in which Warren finds himself recovering a stranded lorry on the A47 near Billesdon. Nice stretch of countryside out there