grumpyf1

Is it a bird? Is a plane? It's WHAT?! The 80’s pop smash by one-hit wonders The Weather Girls suggested that, at approximately half past ten, it would be raining men. I’m no scientist, but that sounds potentially quite dangerous. If you’re somewhere in the vicinity of Lincoln, you should consider some kind of protective headwear. Fortunately, male precipitation isn’t likely, but there is the off-chance you could encounter a light shower of Bakewell pudding. The delicious desert has gone AWOL after being launched spaceward by pupils from a Derbyshire School. Attached to a high altitude balloon, the fundraising flight was aiming for a giddy 114,000ft, but comms went flaky at just under half that altitude, and contact was lost. Maybe the transmission was jammed. Whilst alien abduction can’t be ruled out, I’d imagine our little green friends are still too busy puzzling as to why tech multi-millionaire Elon Musk has started firing his used Tesla cars at them. The school pupi...

Kill me now... Modelling – it must be a whirlwind of glamorous locations, fabulous parties and constant adoration. Maybe at the high end of glamour it is, but for those who are barely even reaching for the bottom rung of the ladder of success, it would appear to be slightly less scintillating and exhilarating. True, I’m not exactly basing this on in-depth research, but I did once work with a guy who dated a girl who became a very successful model (after they split up) and we were introduced briefly at an office Christmas party. That’s puts me in the “expert” category, right? This week, I had cause to look into corporate clothing. You know the sort of thing; reasonably priced clobber with your organisation’s logo on. Practical. Smart. Washable at 30C. Whilst the ladies throwing some shapes to show off their branded gear were broadly cheery in the photos, some of their male colleagues clearly weren’t too chuffed at being photographed in a £4.99 nylon-mix polo shirt (with contra...

#NorthernFail It isn’t hard to imagine a conversation taking place at beleaguered train operator Northern, sometime in the depths of winter, that went something like this: “Passengers want more trains!” “Fine – give them more trains.” “What, really? Won’t we need loads more staff to operate them?” “We can worry about that nearer the go-live date.” “But, surely we’ll need time to employ them, train th....” “Shhsh! Stop worrying. It’s cold in here. Chuck something else on the fire.” “How about this large box of customer complaints?” “Perfect – we’ve got loads of those we need to get rid of!” OK, that’s made up, but there is more than enough anger and frustration amongst let-down passengers that it wouldn’t have surprised many of them if it were a true story. Northern have removed 165 services every day until nearly the end of July, as they struggle to cope with an expanded timetable. Some of these are the Lakes Line, running to and from Preston, Lancaster, Oxenhol...

Cat & Paul Moffat - plastic free! Last week, I ended my column praising Tesco for ditching some Best Before dates to help cut down on food waste.  I also suggested that working on reducing packaging was something to strive for. The supermarket giant might not have responded, but I’m heartened by the news that a couple from Ulverston will soon be opening a zero-waste store, called Cut The Wrap. Last year, Cat and Paul Moffat made a valiant effort to cut down on their packaging use, and tried to stop using single use plastics – the stuff that you can’t recycle. They soon discovered how hard this can be when you’ve a family to feed and an average level of income. Their simple realisation, that many other people feel the same way, spurred them to pursue their idea of a shop where there is no packaging that you need to get rid of. Bring your own container, and buy by weight. Apart from the packaging reduction, the ability to buy just what you need, rather than the pre-se...