BS: Chuffing Weather!

Subject: BS: Chuffing Weather!
From: GUEST,Sapper doing West Highland on TRU
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 07:44 AM

Gets into Glasgow Central testerday afternoon, about 15:40ish, after a relaxed passenger run from Derby to find a heavy shower. Got a bit damp walking to the hotel, but expected the rain to clear up[ after a while.

No bloody chance!
It developed to the best thunderstorm I've seen for yonks!
Still, when it did subside it was a lovely evening.

Not so this morning though. Doing an inspection run up to Oban & Ft. William and it's chucking it down!

Tomorrow up to Malaig and back to Motherwell.

Subject: RE: BS: Chuffing Weather!
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 08:15 AM

Don't you mean chuff chuffing weather mate?

G

Subject: RE: BS: Chuffing Weather!
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 08:17 AM

Lesser countries have climate. We have weather.

Subject: RE: BS: Chuffing Weather!
From: catspaw49
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 09:03 AM

The weekend was bright and sunny with highs at about 80. Yesterday the high never made it to 50 and after heavy rain and severe storms on Monday we had some snow and sleet on Tuesday morning!

Almost May first isn't it?


Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Chuffing Weather!
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 09:06 AM

Problem is Spaw, our weather seems to think it's April first, and I don't like practical jokes.

G

Subject: RE: BS: Chuffing Weather!
From: Irene M
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 04:01 PM

I used to live in Oban. It rained.

Subject: RE: BS: Chuffing Weather!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 06:22 PM

How can you tell when it's summer in Britain?

The rain gets warmer.

I say rain.... even the ducks were complaining this afternoon... someone in the City ordered 400 planks of Gopher wood and Regent's Park Zoo have started pairing up the animals....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Chuffing Weather!
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 07:07 PM

I'm confused. An Australian friend of mine said "I'm chuffed" when he felt proud of something- how can weather be chuffed?

Subject: RE: BS: Chuffing Weather!
From: nutty
Date: 01 May 08 - 01:49 PM

Ebbie I seem to remember reading somewhere in a thread that Sapper is a train driver ,,,,, hence - chuffing (chuffing billy was the name of a train)

Subject: RE: BS: Chuffing Weather!
From: john f weldon
Date: 01 May 08 - 08:59 PM

Hurray, hurray,
The first of May
Outdoor Chuffing begins today....

...or something like that...

Subject: RE: BS: Chuffing Weather!
From: BK Lick
Date: 02 May 08 - 02:47 PM

Chuffing: adjective: (UK, slang) Used as a mild intensifier, especially as a substitute for fucking.   -- Wiktionary

Subject: RE: BS: Chuffing Weather!
From: M.Ted
Date: 02 May 08 - 03:35 PM

It sounds like something that a cat with a hairball does.

Subject: RE: BS: Chuffing Weather!
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 02 May 08 - 06:49 PM

Said to a friend of mine from the US on the start of their journey to the UK.

"Don't like the weather? Don't worry - It'll change before the days out..."

Keep them reports comin' in, Sapper. Is there still snow up in the west heelands?

:D

Subject: RE: BS: Chuffing Weather!
From: mouldy
Date: 03 May 08 - 02:30 AM

It sounds like Scotland's being Scotland, as usual! Went there in the 1976 drought for my honeymoon on the Ardnamurchan peninsula. We got 9 days continuous rain.

I always said that whereas other places have a climate, we in Britain have weather...."weather" or not it's going to rain!

Andrea (who willingly goes camping in Scotland every July) xx

Subject: RE: BS: Chuffing Weather!
From: mouldy
Date: 03 May 08 - 02:41 AM

Just been reminded of something Billy Connolly said - "there's no such thing as bed weather - just poor choice of clothing!" or words to that effect...

Andrea

Subject: RE: BS: Chuffing Weather!
From: sapper82
Date: 03 May 08 - 04:09 AM

Well, finally back home this morning!
No, I am not a train driver, but work as an "On Train Technician" on one of Notwork Fail's track inspection trains.
Click here to see last Mallaig run I did 2y ago.

We tend to get a bit blasé about the scenery we travel through, we see so much of it!

Fort William on Wednesday night wasn't bad but wet again getting up to there and we had slightly better weather on Thursday for the run to Mallaig and back to Mossend Depot, near Motherwell. Shame the taxi took nearly an hour to pick us up!

Then yesterday 7:30 off the hotel and working back to Crewe. Then passenger back home, getting back at 9ish.

When I got off the train at Crewe LNWR depot at 17:30 yesterday evening, I realised I'd been on the train continually since boarding at Mossend Depot at 07:45!!

Subject: RE: BS: Chuffing Weather!
From: Irene M
Date: 03 May 08 - 02:32 PM

Just had a look at the photos. Wonderful.
Have to ask just what you were doing on Luing, there being no railway of which I am aware.

Subject: RE: BS: Chuffing Weather!
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 03 May 08 - 04:12 PM

And here I thought "chuffing" was the throaty noise a doggie makes when he's happy or playful. the sort of "huff huff" blowing of air through his mouth while wagging his tail. if you ignore the Chuff invite to play, a chuff can turn from the "huff huff" to the "woof woof" rapidly!

I think I first saw the term chuffing in RE dogs in a book by Stanley Coren called How To Speak Dog (great book!) and then later saw it again several times in Dean Koontz novels. Aboput ever other Koontz novel features a dog in an important role and he's very adept at describing thier behavior and communications. So sad that his own dear doggie Trixie passed away last year. trixie was so clever that she "wrote" 2 books! How ever did she manage the keyboard I wonder??? LOL

Subject: RE: BS: Chuffing Weather!
From: sapper82
Date: 03 May 08 - 04:26 PM

Ah! Luing was my previous job with a company called ROSCOM doing trials for the TETRA radio system.
Working in 2 man driver/navigator teams, we covered a lot of the UK.
Best of all was the week in Oban;
Thu. Pick up Mondeo in derby and drive with partner to Oban.

Fri. Drive to Luing, do a 40 min redrive of the area, back to Oban and transfer data onto my laptop for another team to use next day.

Sat. Because the other team had my laptop, we were stood down on 8h time and a half. Walked the back road from Oban almost to Connel Ferry and then cut across to the coast and followed that back to the town. A good 15 to 18 miles.

Sun. Drive to Glasgow for replacement laptop and back to Oban.

Mon. Up for ferry to Colonsay, do 25 min redrive on island and get next ferry back. Next ferry however, was not until the Wednesday, so we had 2 nights self catering, all paid for by the company. I cooked, mate did the washing up.

Tues. Stood down on 8h flat rate. Went walking on the island.

Wed. Ferry back to Oban.

Thu. Stood down because we were unable to get ferry to Mull. 8h Stood down, went for another walk!

Fri. Early start for ferry to Mull. Drive to Tobermory for an hours redrive round the town. After redrive, filled in time by touring north half of the island before catching 1st available ferry back. got some overtime on that job as we didn't get back to the hotel until after 8!

Sat. Back to Derby and handed the kit in on the Monday.

Not a bad little motoring hiliday!

Subject: RE: BS: Chuffing Weather!
From: M.Ted
Date: 04 May 08 - 12:52 AM

Thanks for sharing that, Sapper.

Subject: RE: BS: Chuffing Weather!
From: Irene M
Date: 05 May 08 - 03:15 AM

What people in the South don't seem to grasp, are the distances involved in getting anything done up there, and the limited ferry services out of season.
I worked for DHSS (as it was then) in Oban. If we sent a visiting officer out to Mull in the winter, and the weather went snotty, he was in the Craignure Hotel for a couple of nights while the ferry was off (and very happy about it, I must say!)
Those back roads behind Oban are nice for walking. A friend kept some of his bees out there. It was always nice to escape the tourists and head out there to check the hives.

Subject: RE: BS: Chuffing Weather!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 05 May 08 - 07:44 PM

Brilliant sunshine on the south coast of England today... fabulous but now I have a sunburned chest. Anyone see where I put my moisturiser?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Chuffing Weather!
From: Joe_F
Date: 05 May 08 - 08:48 PM

In New England, that adage goes "If you don't like the weather here, wait a minute".

In Boston, in 1997 (I think it was), almost the entire winter's snowfall arrived, with exquisite appropriateness, in the early hours of 1 April.

My first circular letter home from Scotland in 1958 begins:
I managed to get up to St Andrews for a couple of days..., got some errands done, some people seen & myself soaked -- Shakespeare, when he wrote "Why didst thou promise me a beauteous day,/ And send me bravely forth without my cloak?" must have had this place in mind: of the days I have been here, none have been without sunshine, and only one or two without rain.

As to chuffing weather, one may recall the American juvenile rhyme (in a meter, I have heard, that was borrowed by Longfellow from Finland)

When the weather's hot & sticky,
Then it's time for dunkin' dicky.
When the frost is on the punkin,
That's the time for dicky-dunkin'.

-- which in turn reminds one of something the monks used to sing:

Numquam amans sequi volo
Vices temporum
Bestiali more.

(As a lover I will never follow the changes of the seasons after the manner of beasts.)