Disseminaters of Weather Bunkum,

There are probably few things more tedious than talking about the weather especially when it's not out of ordinary (it's cold in January and it might rain or snow). I suppose it's something we do to pass the time. The delivery man on Monday told me about how it wasn't raining along the coast and that the weather seemed to be clearing up, then whilst we waited on his digital keypad gadget to booting up, I tried to gazump him with "Oh, but it's going to be windy tonight." He wasn't interested, the dodgy signature had been recorded (those digital signature pads are woeful, I hope they will never be used to validate an argument) and he was gone.

I walked past two duffers who were complaining about the rain as if it was a decision made by politicians, it was apparently "awfy" and "a disgrace". I thought that this was boring at the time, but even now, I can't stop thinking about how cold I am. My status at work is still that of report writing, I can do it at home or in St Andrews. I ventured into the office there today, I lasted until lunchtime. I couldn't hug the radiator next to my desk tightly enough. The local temperature at my desk has been affected greatly by the fact that they've removed the insulating ceiling tile above my desk in order to repair the hole in the roof. Before Christmas, I was working at my desk and then water came gushing in. It was like a scene from Tom & Jerry although it wouldn't have been so comical if my laptop had been soaked just a little more. I also returned from the Christmas holiday to find my desk covered in green paper towels. I doubt that they've mended the roof yet and I left today before I required an umbrella at my desk.

The roads home were closed later in the afternoon due to flooding so I'm glad I retreated to my home office/radiator when I did.

Why are we obsessed with weather? Is it because we are bored? Do we like being shocked? Would we be so shocked if our weather bulletins were more educational? The weather forecasting in this country is of such a low standard; if it was to improve, perhaps the boring chit-chat might become high-brow and we'd all have a better understanding of basic physical and meteorological concepts.