Stay safe, stay inside, and play tunes for Ophelia

Hoping our friends in Ireland are keeping safe and dry.

My daughter and family are in N Ireland right now: thinking of them and the in-laws.

What tunes should we play?

For starters:

The Fair Wind
The Tempest
A Blast of Wind
Gusty’s Frolics

Pretty bad here too in North West Wales

Be ambitious. Play “the Hurricane”
Final tune in the set…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LX3bwKM70U

play video

Not too bad in Belfast right now. It will be worse in a couple of hours.

After the Storm?

Stay safe, all.

“…and for the love of god, DON’T SWIM IN THE SEA!!!”

I’d leave the skiff tied up too….

Thanks to joe fidkid for thinking about us here in Paddy Land. My wife Kate & meself were out in the back garden this morning at 07.30 stashing the garden furniture away in the dark! Expecting the usual early breakfast and school run scenario with the grandchildren, then we found out all schools were shutting for the day in anticipation of the storm.
Schools shut, businesses shut, transport severely curtailed & eventually closed down. I spent the afternoon in the conservatory, one eye on the TV, one eye on the newspaper, and the other one on the birds, leaves, twigs et al hurtling past and overhead. At one stage I saw a black shape in the sky, floating serenely overhead, maybe a quarter of a mile away, don’t know if it was a wheelie bin liner or a hay bale wrapper, or something else even bigger.
Grand daughters were grand, no serious squabbles, they helped me to make dinner ie. played with chunks of puff pastry left over from the pie I made. Two minutes before I was going to dish it up their Dad arrived to take them all home, so of course there was a stampede for the door!
Just found a while ago that the schools are all closed tomorrow too, so if their Dad is taking the day off, maybe we have a day off!
One of my adult twin sons was sent home early from his job as a Traffic Warden. His brother though, hasn’t been seen from early morn. He is involved with the electricity supply here in Northern Ireland so at times like this he’s in big demand. There’s a big chunk of the afore mentioned pie waiting on a plate for him when he finally gets home, but that could be tomorrow night, never mind tonight.
We’re OK here at the minute in County Down, wind has died down a bit, but there are thousands of families with no electricity, places getting flooded, trees down all over the place, and let’s spare a thought and a wee prayer for the three people dead here in Ireland ( at the last count) and let’s hope that there’s no more fatalities.
Thanks again to joe fidkid for thinking about us here. Maybe say a wee prayer for the folks in South West Scotland who are next in line for Ophelia.

Our letterbox has started rattling which is always a sure sign of high winds! Family due to fly back to Scotland late this afternoon, by which time Ophelia should have passed both N Ireland and Scotland and be heading for Hamlet-land!

Blessings on everyone in the storm path. May you and your families and friends be safe and snug; have a way to keep the water hot, the beer cold and the music flowing. (Patient housemates are therefore required as well.)

“Hamlet-land”?
I thought it was heading for Norway and missing Denmark according to the maps on the weather forecast.

Hope everyone is safe over there. Too bad you can’t send it over here in Aus as we desperately need it.