Thanks to everyone who gave me birthday wishes. I had a pretty good day- celebrated in style at the Met Office, and had some good messages on here and on Facebook- I got a subscription to Chess magazine as well for my birthday (I've subscribed to it before but had stopped- but given my record at the MetO, 8 wins 4 draws 0 losses, it was appropriate to restart).

I'm getting quite excited about the upcoming week's weather. It may end up a bit humid for my liking, but otherwise as far as I'm concerned it looks like being my idea of summer bliss- highs in the mid 20s by day, plenty of sunshine, and chances of thundery downpours in late afternoon and evening. It will be a good way, weather-wise, to round off my stay in Exeter if this comes off.

I would be pretty "narked" about the upcoming spell if I was on the Tyneside coast- no chances of thundery downpours there, and probably not much chance of sunshine either from Thursday onwards- but it doesn't matter because I'm not there!