Guest Book

Ray Brooker the Midas Man, I quote "as membership secretary I collect some £30,000 per year".
Rather a large stipend for what seems to be a less than onerous task I would opine Ray !
My good lady also participates in the historical sport of bowls, some four times a week in the summer, hence we have to take our holidays in the off season.It was of course the sport in which the great Sir Francis Drake indulged so you are in good company.

Ah well, I might as well confess. Since giving up long-distance walking (it hurts now)I have taken to watching Somerset play cricket at Taunton - I can nod off with the best of them. Also I have taken up bowls in a big way. By bowls I mean old man's bowls, not the ten-pin variety. I belong to Minehead Bowling Club, and as well as playing, I coach, also do Membership Secretary, collecting around £30,000 per year. Also Press and Publicity Officer; I could go on, but the mere mention of bowls has probably sent you all off to sleep. But in my dotage, I need something to keep me sane, and sex is no longer the ultimate aphrodisiac at 70!

Its funny how contributions to the guestbook go in cycles. The regular contributors wax lyrical with wondrous prose for a while, then the muse deserts us all and we fall silent, and then return with bursts of magical reminiscences of our various lives when we were doing the Met.
None of that from me today though, I think I have exhausted all my anecdotes from the past.
With all the beautiful weather we have had in recent days I have been concentrating on my golf, but being made ever mindful, however much I try, that age diminishes the sporting ability exponentially and I must accept the loss of 10 yards off my drives and the lack of ability to "chip it close" which was present in my younger days.
To JW, got your email and I hope you are feeling better after you trials and tribulations on the operating table.

Where have all the Met folks gone long time no hear, Surely not passed on.
Keith I hope someone remembers you, bit after my time. GOOD LUCK.

Hi everyone. Well I finally got round to contacting the group. Tending to be somewhat quiet in the background during my Met days, few may remember me. After leaving the mob in 79 my wife and I emigrated to NZ. After careers in Agriculture and Steel I finally retired in 2007.
I never really shook off Met and these days concentrate on cloud photography. To fuel the obsession I joined Cloudspotters to hopefully expand my appreciation of the science.
To relive those days at sea doing weather obs I am travelling by container ship to Tilbury in July / August. The original urge was the chance to transit the Panama Canal. All up the trip will take 32 days at sea with at least one long stint away from land between NZ and the canal.
To juice it up a bit I plan to keep a journal with daily obs. Being a dork I left my Met notes on board Tiger when I left. I have managed to download what is the closest to our synoptic plot from an American website, but for the life of me forget which was red.
I am sure the ship will be sending out weather obs and hope to pal up with the Nav or whoever does them.
Once in UK I will be knocking about for a couple of weeks looking up a few mates as well as dealing with my other obsession...Land rovers.
If this doesn't happen to correspond with any planned reunions no worries as I hope to visit the UK the following year for my old schools 400th anniversary.
Trust everyone is well and not catching the late snow!
All the best

Keith

Spud just a quickie, to thank you for the info on the Bismuth, I suppose thats why you became a Pilot and I made a mess of my Naval Career,

Interesting and relevant bismuth article here at :

http://www.202-sqn-assoc.co.uk/meterological-briefing.html

Sorry I can't get it to link properly! Maybe Charlie will intervene otherwise - Copy and paste.

JW you must have had very many ex- forces customers over the years with loadsa stories about their experiences - shirley much more interesting than running a pub near a fishing 'facility' and probably fewer broken glasses!
("honestly it was this long ." .... crash - pint glass on the floor !! ... etc).

My final thought - I was always led to believe that we in the FAA sank the BISMUTH?

I'm Irish - dat's all i know !

Thanks Ray I spent many a sleepless hour trying to remember the name, I joined up whilst at Cambridge though not actually at the University, I was in the Met Office at RAF Duxford and Cambridge was one of our runs ashore, The Shore being the River Cam. where I spent many a fun hour in a Canoe.

Your memory serves you well Johnny - it was indeed called a Bismuth, and we had to decode it for Commander Jenkins at Culdrose RNSOM as late as 1960. Can't remember much about it, except I think it was coded in descending order i.e. opposite to radio-sonde.

Could one of you knowledgeable chaps help me out, whilst in the Air Ministry Meteorological Office prior to joining the Navy I made enquiries about becoming part of the crew of a Aircraft which sole function was to record Meteeorological Data by either ascending or descending at a fixed rate, producing a code similar to the synoptic surface code. Much as I try I cannot remember what it was called. I believe it may of finished in the late 1950,s I was with the Air MINISTRY IN 1957. The name that is in the back of my mind is the Bizmuth or something similar.
The subject was brought by a ex RAF Pilot and ex Customer of mine.