Tornados are absolutely wild. We don’t get them often in the South, but we had one blow by us about 18 months ago. We were out at a beer garden watching friends of our play an acoustic gig and at some point we realized there was what looked like a big water spout somewhere south of us. There are a lot of lakes down in the region it looked to be and these are not unusual to see there and no big deal at all. After about a minute of looking we realized it was actually a tornado coming right at us and moving at a hell of a speed. We all sprinted inside and huddled in the beer cooler and no more than seconds after locking ourselves in we could feel it hit the building. Within another couple of seconds it was gone, and as we walked outside literally half the building we were in had gone. Just completely ripped out. Yet the other side of the street was completely untouched. Shit, half the cars in the car park were untouched.
This bastard created mass devastation on a trail of about 15 miles along the line of one street that runs north south through the city, but did so in such a narrow window of impact that the east side the street was almost completely untouched. We’re used to having to hunker down through hurricanes, but those can sometimes last 24 to 48 hours where it isn’t safe to go outside. With this, it was over in seconds and while the damage in the affected area was comparable it was wild to look across the street and see nothing. It looked more like a series of bombs had gone off than a wind event.
Not for the first time, I’ve bought something online, and the couriers (Hermes) have “lost” the parcel after it was out for delivery. I accept that packages/parcels “fall off the back of wagons”.
On this occasion, I’ve been refunded by the retailer as they no longer have any stock left.
Would rather have received the items I wanted - fuming.
Hermes are the worst courier service, I’ve never had a good experience with them. Sending stuff late, pretended they knocked and no-one in, sending the wrong stuff, sending damaged items. I’m amazed they’re still in business. I refuse to order from anywhere I know that uses Hermes as a courier.
On that note, I’ve just bought my first home and was waiting for beds to be delivered by Benson’s. The van ‘broke down’ on friday apparently. Re-delivery monday, they turn up 2 hours before they agreed when no one was in and refused to wait (returning to Scotland, wonder why they wanted to leave early). The delivery guy this morning tells me the broken down van actually had the wrong stock loaded onto it.
I entered a competition for the Netflix movie ‘The Power of The Dog’ on Twitter, sort of a short creative writing type affair, and was chosen as one of the winners.
I won a poster signed by the director and a coffee table book about the production/design of the film.
It means a lot as I so rarely win things, especially where there’s any degree of talent involved.
I am going skiing on Sunday. It will be the first time I’ve done it in 20 years. The group Im going with have been going together every year for over 10 years, but I’ve never been able to go because it was too difficult a time to take time off work. My role has change a bit in the last couple of years so can pull it off finally. Im excited, but also equal parts terrified (and equal parts skint).
If your general fitness is good, you’ll have no problems. You don’t forget skiing, it’s like swimming or having sex… 
