grumpyf1

It seems strange that your local newspaper might soon not be printed locally. Sadly, that might be the case though, as the CN-Group run printing press in Carlisle is at risk of closure. New owners Newsquest are considering the move, which could affect 34 jobs, due to the “tough economics of the newspaper printing market” along with the problem of ageing equipment, and a world where print is steadily being replaced by screen. Future copies of your local paper may come from Glasgow. It’s clearly a difficult and worrying time for those whose livelihoods are at risk - Newsquest acknowledge that the proposal has nothing to do with the quality of the service delivered, but that’s small comfort when you may be about to lose your job. Is this just the top of a slippery slope, though? Increasingly, local newspapers are disappearing or being forced to reduce their staff. Less staff = less news. A drop in the breadth and diversity of reporting means fewer sales. If you’re thinking this ...

It was a lovely day out.  We caught the train to Edinburgh, and rather than just wander round shops looking at stuff we didn’t need, we spontaneously strolled around the town, on a chilly day of exploration and a spectacular Turkish lunch. In the evening we headed to the station for the journey home. Tired, happy and foot-sore, we were looking forward to relaxing and arriving back at Oxenholme for the short hop back home by car. That was when the nightmare began. Whilst monitoring the departure board, our train came up as late by 10 minutes. Then 20. Then just ‘delayed’. Followed by the announcement that strikes fear into the heart of even the hardiest commuter. Due to a ‘person being struck by a train’, the line was closed and we would have to make our onward journey by a (imagine the next few words being read out in a distorted, slowed-down and overly loud voice) Replacement - Bus – Service. Someone was definitely having a far worse evening than us, and my sympathies to...

NB: This is much nicer than anything I ever got served at school... When I was a smaller version of myself, school dinners were an exciting opportunity to play a great game with my friends – ‘Guess what this is?’ The problem was, we usually couldn’t figure it out – sometimes even if we’d been told, it was still hard to identify what it was you were eating. This wasn’t helped by your dinner and pudding being served on one of those all-in-one plastic plates, providing a simple method of getting half of one over the ridge into the other. Not that it made a lot of difference to the taste. Times have changed though, and school lunchtime food is now a delicious, nutritious and healthy delight, prepared by chefs keen to prove the school dinners of old are an (unidentifiable) thing to be forgotten. Good luck to Carlisle’s Kerry Weir, who is up for the title of LCA North West Chef of the Year, for her high quality efforts at the Newlaiths School. Her menu for the Manchester final on...