Callum's Blog

It's a Definite!!

2006-02-28T11:18:00.000Z

Aye, the snows almost here. Both metcheck and metoffice are giving the thumbs up for snow! We will see a couple days of snow on and off and for some places in Northern Ireland, you could see up to 10cm of it. That's like this much (actual scale!):
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But I doubt we'll get as much as that. I predict we'll get this much:
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Fingers crossed!!

This is getting repetitive!

2006-02-24T14:06:00.000Z

I hope I havn't got anyones hopes up the past couple of weeks saying there was supposed to be snow. Well it didn't come. Anyway (I know you probably won't listen to me anyway) but its supposed to be here by the start of the week. I really hope it comes. If it doesn't then I may give up the weather-reporting business (only for a wee while!)

A story by my Ginger Friend (Cathy)!

2006-02-13T10:54:00.000Z

Sorry for the bad grammar, she's a nutbar(with chocolate she says!) I didn't write any of this and haven't edited it. It might take you a long time to read cos it makes no sense and there's hardly any full stops or commas! Bear in mind that Cathy is 18 and studying A-level English. Hmmm....

The truth behind the story of the Green Horse

One day Callum was in his field with his horses, picking apples for his significantly normal horses, when he overheard one of his horses say how he particularly liked the colour green, and if he could be anything, he'd like to be a newt cause they belong to the family of greeniness!

A continuation to the story of the green horse. Now where was I - yes something about newts! Yes I remember now. The horse saw a witch one day walking down the lane and she was carrying green merchandise for her cauldron potion mix, mainly frogs, grass hoppers, lizards, green flies (funnily enough) and of course the lovely newts. And I say to myself, said the horse - "That's a lovely colour of things that strangely clothed lady has". I thought to myself so the horse did - "She's not the horse whisperer, where is the boy with the picnic basket of apples who whispers through the air?"

The next part of the story to the green horse. That strangely witch-like featured lady traveled up the lane on her hippopotamus (of pink and purple stripes) to ye old barn by the farmers apple tree - hence the little boy, yes that Callum fella with the basket of apples. Thus the little boy proceeded to trace the oul witch with an owl on her to the farmyard. He mesmerisley glanced for a long period of time at the witch stirring her cauldron consumed by green smoke! She could sense the sickly scent of the little boy and swooped down upon him like an oul owl after its prey. She drew him forth with her hypnotic eyes and levitated him above her "cauldron of doom!" She dropped him like a sewer rat in to the depths of the fluids below, where the green smoke enveloped him in its ethereal clutches, changing him irrevocably from the little apple boy he once was.

At the same moment in time a bolt of lightning shot down from the sky and knocked over the precious apple tree. The little apple tree/wizard powerstruck boy glided across to the tree like a genie in a bottle, and hurt by the death of his tree began, to dig. Six feet under he uncovered a middle length wand, which rushed to his hand. He stood there in the hole and a mighty voice came over him, "I am the all powerful mighty wizard", and suddenly I see, wait a minute that's a song! Retracking himself he hears the yelp of the horse he once conversed with a voice saying "Remember who you are my son the one true king - REMEMBER." Hold on just caught up in a lion moment, did you feel that breeze. He said, "Remember, no yes you are the little apple boy." Immediately he came back to himself and ran down the lane, standing opposite the horse and he said, "Do you still want what you have always wanted, to be the colour of the apple tree, not red cause you were never red to begin with but green?" The horse nodded, "wait a minute", he said, cause in my land he can speak! Then the bot whipped out his wand and chanted, "HUMINA SCHUMINA, MAKE MY FRIEND GREEN OR I'LL DISECT YOU BEGINNING WITH THE SPLEEN, HUMINA SCHUMINA!" And there it was. A rainbow of colours drenched the horse, and when it was wrenched away, a green river enclosed his body. They shook hand-to-hoof and the little boy jumped on his masculine stallion and they followed the green brick road to Greenia, through the green teak wardrobe of Peace.

If any publishers are reading this, Cathy would love to hear from you.

Me and my ginger friend

2006-02-13T10:41:00.000Z

In school at the mo, with not much to do. (me talking)

And breaking news there has been an outbreak of wait a minute i dont think you'l gues it but maybe cos it callum and he not predictable at all yes there's a huge drift of snow heading our way from the english mediterranean south pacific coast sealine and not the animal. (Cathy talking, well, trying her best!)

Don't understand what shes trying to say. I think she's excited about Valentine's Day. Chris will be pleased cos she's taking him to Paris (don't tell Chris!). (me talking)

Nope dat aint what gonna happen cos all flights have been cancelled from here to norweigen and getting out of dis country gonna be tricking difficult. why bwhat is happening up in the nest od cuckoo and lovebirds for Callum. I think there's love in the air for the young sportsman of the year! Would i be right and who's mr.right are you? (Cathy Talking)

Sorry... (Me talking)

Where is it?!

2006-02-11T12:54:00.000Z

This snow just doesn't seem to be coming. One day Metcheck says it's on it's way, the next, it's gone!!

However (if they don't change their mind!), we should get snow (a good 2 days worth) by the end of this week (17th-18th)!

Also got uploaded some photos on bebo of Reachout from the summer. Check them out if you havn't already!

http://baconbuddy.bebo.com

Mmmm...Snow!

2006-01-22T17:23:00.000Z

The snow will be hear shortly, bleieve it or not. A polar continental drift is coming the way during the next 2 weeks , and a good flurrey is expected to fall (possible continuous snow for 3 to 4 days).

For more info, you know where to go! www.metcheck.com

Yeehaaaa!!!!

Prepare...For the Cold Spell has Come!

2005-11-23T16:45:00.000Z

Oh yes, during the next 24 hours you better start getting out your Winter gear for the snow is on its way! Whoop whoop!

A band of cold air is making its way from the northern arctic regions and is expected to hit us by the end of Thursday night, causing rain to eventually turn to snow. And to add to this, wind speeds are expected to rise, causing gale force winds, and we all know what that equals.....blizzards!

We (Northern Ireland) along with Scotland are going to take the brunt of it, so avoid any unnecessary drives on Friday (yes that means no unnecessary trips to school!). The last of it will be on Monday, again staying heavy (fingers crossed) but will then pass south.

Oh yeah, I also heard from someone that on Christmas day the temperatures are to drop to -18C (that a minus in front of it if you didn't interpret it correctly!). That's cold, a bit too cold if you ask me...

I like snow. Makes everything white and purdy!

Ice Cold!

2005-11-15T21:12:00.000Z

It's that time of year again, the time I love... Winter! Main reason I like it so much is because www.metcheck.com produces a Snow Risk section, giving you a percentage of snow for each day, and also has a percentage for there to be a White Christmas. I love snow by the way!

Already, in early-mid November, Scotland is feeling the cold spell and will experience a blizzard for tonight(lucky souls). So I'm just giving out an early warning to be prepared for a colder than average Winter, and hopefully a whiter Christmas than last year!!

It's been a While...

2005-09-22T13:31:00.000+01:00

Aye. I was supposed to tell you what I was up to a week ago, but never got round to it!

Well, headed to Jordanstown last week for an Open day, thinking it'd be a day of going to lectures, talks etc, but ended up having a pretty decent day! CoolFm were there, blattering out all the top tunes and having competitions. Someone in my year managed to win tickets to Franz Ferdinand! I walked around, got some handouts and leaflets on engineering, pretending to look interested, and then walked on a wee bit and found a disco on in the SU. Managed to just about get in (jam packed with people) and danced for 2 hours straight! Fun day or what. Not too fussed on the campus and layout of Jordanstown, but the socialising appears to be top notch! So thats what I was suppoded to explain "tomorrow..."!

And I see you's all heard about Justin's rollercoaster ride. Bit nasty.

Isn't too much up with me at the mo. Had a man come to Scripture Union on Tuesday and gave his testimony. If you thought you had problems and got immersed in bad stuff, wait til you heard his life story! Basically he got into magic, warlords and that sort of thing without being aware of it, but finally realised that God could give him peace and take away all the pain and sin he had got into.

It really made me think. No matter how deep we get into sin, God is always there, just waiting behind all our problems. Think of it like this...

Bedroom = Us
Floor = God
Clothes = Sin
Wardrobe+Drawers = Grace
Without a wardrobe or a chest of drawers, we can pile all our clothes on the floor, completly cover it, making our bedroom look very very messy. But if we're given storge to hang our clothes up, the floor can be revealed again. Grace takes our sin and keeps it under control, keeping God a main focus in our lives. Overall, our lives will be cleaner and we can shine for God. A silly analogy, but it helps me to visualise my life!

p.s. Weather for the week is a bit poor. Today and tomorrow will be cool, with periods of rain throught the day. Saturday ill be a chiller, with a real feel of -4 in the morning. Sunday will be heavy persistant rain all day. But Monday will be a change with temperatures just reaching the 20's. A barbeque would be lovely for the evening!

Shine for Christ <><

Weather update for week 14th-21st September 2005

2005-09-13T23:15:00.000+01:00

Wednesday 14th - ok, odd drizzle of rain, but generally good.

Thursday 15th - Rain, rain and a bit more rain. Yep lots of rain, up to 12.3mm of it, with torrential downpours at times!

Friday 16th - No rain, no rain at all. Sun should come out aswell! That's a bit of a change, ey.

Saturday 17th - No rain this day either, but a bit more cloud cover. It's feel cold in your beds in the mrning though with a 'real feel' of -1. That's below freezing, 1 below freezing!

Sunday 18th - Much like the Saturday, but temperatures will only hit a high of 15/16C in the afternoon. No chance of a tan!

Monday 19th - Hmm much like Saturday and Sunday!! This is easy.

Tuesday 20th - Lots of cloud cover, 100% cover most of the day, which will mean bedtime will be cosy! But no rain. Whoopee.

Wednesday 21st - The odd cahnce of rain in the morning, with strong winds blowing from the south. Ac ahnce of sun exposure in the eveing, making for a nice sunrise, hopefully!

Wow this is a lot easier than just doing one day! I've had people requesting for more weather updates more often, so this is better for me to do! Hope it's good enough for you guys.

I'd really like to write a wee bit more about how my week was, but I really need to go sleep. Partying too much this morning!

I'll explain tomorrow.

Forecast for 7th September 2005

2005-09-06T17:13:00.000+01:00

Well, after today's weather, tomorrow is going to feel like a Winter's day! We saw temperatures reaching a high of 22C in the afternoon today, but tomorrow, we'll only feel it getting up to a measly 17C at max.

Cloud cover will be high, becoming overcast throughout the night and continuing through to all of tomorrow. There may be a touch of sunshine breaking it's way through at intervals, but don't expect to get the flip-flops out (sorry Kara-Lyn!). Air pressure is lowering conisderably, from 1018mb today, to a small 1002 tomorrow. This is still considered high pressure (anything below 1000mb[mb=millibars] is called low pressure), but just not high enough for the shorts.

The odd drizzle may be felt, but won't amount to anything, only 0.1mm in total. Winds will be light, blowing in from the south/south-west at a max of 12mph.

Hope it's correct. Don't want you guys getting soaked by the 0.1mm of rain!!

Getting Back to Porridge!

2005-08-30T22:07:00.000+01:00

Yep... new school term coming up again (is that a big horray I hear?!). I decided it would be a good time to start filling in my UCAS form, when I realised I could'nt do it! It seems I've chosen all the wrong AS subjects to do and can't get a course in engineering without maths (didn't start thinking about becoming an engineer until a few months ago, silly me).

So basically I need to do maths in one year (mission: impossible!) or do it over two years, which would mean I need to go to tech and finish it off, meaning that when I fill in my UCAS form, I need to get it inferred. It's all such a pile of doo-hicky to me!

However, I can always turn to my last resort...becoming a teacher (yikes). Since I was young, I always thought it would be good to be a teacher, and it is still an option for me. My future's a wee bit uncertain, but I'll be happy with what comes along. Just go with the flow!

Master the Art of Baking!!

2005-08-28T15:30:00.000+01:00

After reading about Kara-Lyn's latest mishap in the kitchen when making banana bread, I've done a bit of research and have posted the different types of flour.

I had a situation somewhat like Kra-Lyn's, also including bananas! I tried to bake a carrot cake a wee while ago, but later discovered, after mixing half the ingredients, I had no carrots. So I figured I could substitute carrots for...bananas. No.no you can't. It doesn't work. Unless you want to make a goo cake. The recipe said to cook it for 35 minutes at 200C, but it ended up in the oven for 1 hour 30 mins, and it was still gooey! So it went straight in the bin.

I thought that if I replaced a missing ingredient with something I had in the house, the outcome would still be nice and tasty. Well it wasn't, as Justin will tell you. As Christians, we need to stick to the recipe that God gives us, in the commandments. He has given us these set of instuctions, so that we can be shaped into the people God wants us to be. Just as bread has to be kneeded with time and patience, we too need to see that God has a plan for us, and in time, we will be ready.

The choice of flours for home cooking and baking:

Plain Flour - also known as all-purpose. Use for shortcrust pastry, sauces and gravies where a raising agent is not required.

Self-raising - Flour to which a raising agent has been evenly mixed. Use for cakes, scones and puddings. (this is essential for making banana bread!!!!!!!)

Soft Flour - a soft white flour which has been milled very finely to give sponges, cake and scones a higher rise and finer texture.

Strong Flour - a flour with a high protein content providing a high volume and open texture. Ideal for bread and all types of yeast cookery, Yorkshire puddings and puff pastry

Wholemeal – 100% extraction, made from the wholewheat grain with nothing added or taken away.

Brown – usually contains about 85% of the original grain. Some bran and germ have been removed.

White – usually 75% of the wheatgrain. Most of the bran and wheatgerm have been removed before milling.

Wheatgerm – white or brown flour with at least 10% added wheatgerm (don't like the sound of this one).

Malted wheatgrain – brown or wholemeal flour with added malted grains.

Stoneground – wholemeal flour ground in traditional way, between 2 stones.

Forecast for 25th August 2005

2005-08-25T20:50:00.000+01:00

We'll start off the day rather cloudy, with temperatures as low as 7C by 7:00. Don't expect it to be any better in the afternoon, as the cloud will remain, bringing with it heavy showers at times.

By 3:00 temperatures will only have increased to a max of 14C, but the cloud will pass, allowing that eager sun to break through in the evening. However, it still won't be a nice enough for the old BBQ i'm afraid, with drizzles or rain showing their faces!

We'll feel some light winds coming in from the southwest throughout the day, around 10-12 mph (not too strong).

If you're a star gazer, look foward to a clear night, with cloud cover at a minimal; only 5% (that's very little cloud really). The absence of cloud during the night is a result of increasing pressure (am I right Karen?), and so temperatures will drop, leaving a crisp feel in the air. Keep snuggled in your cosy beds!

That's all from me. Tune in for regular updates from your friendly weatherman!

Due to Popular Demand...!

2005-08-25T20:38:00.000+01:00

I've had tons of requests coming in (well two so far), urging me to place the daily forecast in my blog. Your wish is my command!

If you've ever wondered, "Where does Callum get all his forecast statistics and predictions from?" Well here's the links to the sites I use. I compare readings from both and then produce my own statistics from them. Hope you will use them too.

www.metoffice.com
www.weather.co.uk
http://www.metcheck.com/ (My personal favourite!)

I love researching the weather, and feel a lot better when I know what it's going to be. It allows me to prepare for the best (sunny weather = trip to the beach) or for the worst (rain = a day indoors!). Without knowing what it's going to be like, how will we prepare for the day?

I have the same thoughts as a Christian. I need to prepare my life and change the ways in which I act, so that I can shine for God (pun not intended!) and help others and show them my faith when they feel they may have a problem or a raincloud hanging over their heads (pun intended!), and that I will be ready for Him.

Guess What...I'm making a Blog!

2005-08-23T22:31:00.000+01:00

Yeah you heard right. I'm making a blog. I reckon it's a real good place to share your thoughts and feelings, and just let people know a little bit about your week or such!

ps. Karen, your spelling isn't up to scratch, and you call yourself a teacher. Huh!

pps. Please don't go through this blog trying to find any spelling mistakes, because you won't find any ( I seriously hope!)!