I'm having a bit of a rough day

We just had dinner at the Bull's Head on Sunday!! It's a small world. Next time you're coming up to Derby, PM me and I'll meet you for coffee - I have two munchkins in tow, but they're used to getting dragged along!
Enjoy your dinner!

You gotta love it! I'll definitely let you know. I've got 4 year old and 9 month old nephews back in CO, so the sprogs are always fun. It'll probably be a few weeks before I can make it up to Derby for more then a short trip because of our puppy. Mylo is only 8 weeks, he can't handle being crated for more then a few hours.

Glad you're doing better now .

Yeah, it was pretty weird - I had just spent 5 months living 8,000 miles away from everyone, then had 3 weeks back home in the UK and then left again for 3 months living 4,000 miles away! I'm doing the 8,000-mile trip again in January and staying there for 4 months, although I made sure not to be away for Christmas this time .

You may still get frost at Christmas - it's quite often frosty in December here (the number of air frost and icy roads warnings I have to put out in winter is crazy), just depends on the weather situation at the time and the position of the jet stream as to whether we get the cold air from the Arctic or warmer air from the Atlantic. It can vary quite a lot though... on Christmas Day 2010, we had a maximum temperature of -6 C (21 F) and there was ice/frost everywhere, but then on Christmas Day 2011, it was 12 degrees (54 F) and raining! (Sorry, I'm a meteorologist - this stuff is basically my life ).

*grins* There is absolutely no need to apologize about loving your work! I'm always up for learning new things, and I have a LOT to learn about the UK. I was a little bummed to hear there was no snow last year. It's one of my favorite things about winter! That and a need for cute coats and sweaters.

Wow, that's a lot of traveling! You're making me super curious as to what you do! It sounds like you've got your traveling schedule down pat.

*grins* There is absolutely no need to apologize about loving your work! I'm always up for learning new things, and I have a LOT to learn about the UK. I was a little bummed to hear there was no snow last year. It's one of my favorite things about winter! That and a need for cute coats and sweaters.

It's really up and down here in the UK, although the further north you are, the more likely there'll be snow - we tend to get more snow up here in Lincolnshire, than down in the southwest of England, which is where I'm from.

Until 2009, we'd had very mild winters - no more than 1 inch of snow per year for almost 15 years in Bristol. But then in 2009 and 2010, we had pretty cold winters with a fair amount of snow.

It's not guaranteed though, not like in areas of the US where you know it's going to be cold in winter and hot in summer. Being a small island and affected by 6 different airmasses, coming from all directions (Artic, North Atlantic, Southern Europe, Northern Europe etc.) and all battling it out to see which one wins, the weather is very changeable.

Last couple of weeks, we've had all the warm air coming up from Spain and France, giving us the hot weather and thunderstorms, then this week, we have fronts coming from the north and west, bringing slightly cooler air.

Wow, that's a lot of traveling! You're making me super curious as to what you do! It sounds like you've got your traveling schedule down pat.

Yeah, I've barely been in one place for more than a few months over the last few years .

I work for the Met Office as a weather forecaster, but I'm based on an RAF base - so I provide military weather briefings to the pilots before they fly their sorties and missions. As a result, there are opportunities to go on overseas deployments and work in the Met Offices there - so last year, I spent 5 months in the Falkland Islands, this year, 3 months on Ascension Island (which is the refuelling hub for flights between the UK and the Falklands as it's an 18-hour trip), and then I'm going back to the Falklands again in January for 4 months. There are also opportunities to work in Cyprus and Gibraltar, as well as Antarctica (with the British Antarctic Survey), and we can also sign up as RAF Reservists, go through officer training and get sent to the frontline (i.e. Afghanistan, Iraq) as on-site forecasters (I haven't done this though).