28/07/2008 by admin.

Added a session in the gym this morning to my regular 40 lengths. Hard work…but not as hard as a day  gardening on Saturday.

After the pool, I popped into the sauna and to me horror was joined by an old woman who began to tell me of her strange affliction which causes her flesh to come away when she bangs it against anything hard.

“The doctor wanted to put a dry dressing on it but I just got my dog to lick it,” she revealed. I made my excuses and left.

Posted in Society | Print | 1 Comment »

26/07/2008 by admin.

I am not going swimming again on a Saturday morning. Too full of tossers who keep bumping into everybody. No soonewr had we got rid of blind barry - a slow crawler whose goggles steam up so badly that he can’t see what he’s doing - than the famous flailing fanny turned up splashed everybody for two lengths before standing at the bottom end talking to the fattest women in the pool about her bad leg - and was still going on aboujt it eight lengths later.

But the worst was a new idiot who adopted a kind of backwards butterfly which involved waving his arms about like a musical conductor and hitting as many people as possible!

Posted in Society | Print | 1 Comment »

23/07/2008 by admin.

I am just back from the motor show in London. I borrowed a Passat Bluemotion to test its green claims for a piece I am doing for Business Traveller magazine. You can read a full review later but I must share this:

200 miles, average speed 59 mph…..mpg: 67.4 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted in Uncategorized | Print | 1 Comment »

20/07/2008 by admin.

Been out and about this weekend in a VW Passat Bluemotion in connection with a feature I am writing for Business Traveller magazine (September edition).

One thing which will be striking most drivers is how much more pleasant the roads are at the moment, now nobody can afford to put any fuel in their tanks. I’m not sure if that means congestion charging will work…or that it means  there is no need for it!

Secondly, I was coming back from Lyme Park on the A6 at Stockport (anybody in Greater Manchester will know that is the original road to hell, full of traffic lights, queues, and idiot parkers) and glanced at my average fuel consumption in this reasonably big saloon: 65mpg!!!!

Well I’m drivoing it down to the motor show next week so lets see how it performs on a long motorway run. 

Posted in Transport | Print | 1 Comment »

17/07/2008 by admin.

I sat in the sauna this morning listening in on a woman in the jacuzzi telling her friends what a wonderful experience she had visiting the Dental Hospital in Manchester.

“I got the train, which only took 20 minutes to Victoria. Then I jumped straight on a tram to Piccadilly. When I got there, I asked a bus driver how to get to the Dental Hospital. ‘Jump in,’ he said. ‘I’m going right past there’.

“When I had finished, there was a bus waiting outside so I hopped on and went and did some shopping. It was brilliant…just not worth taking the car.”

How wonderful, I thought, but there was more to come…

“Of course,” she said, “Now I’m 60, it didn’t cost me a penny!!!”

Posted in Transport | Print | 1 Comment »

15/07/2008 by admin.

Just back from long weekend in  Grassington where we celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary.

Two connoseur’s walks: Grassington to Burnsall on the river and back across the tops via Linton (checkpout the Fountaine Inn)…and Burnsall to Yockenthwaite (where we bought some Granola from the farm) on the river and back along the ledge via Cray. 

Posted in Uncategorized | Print | 1 Comment »

11/07/2008 by admin.

At last!

Detectives have knocked on Roger Jones’ door to ask him about how he lost his seat. You read it here first! See the full story at http://www.transportmatters.co.uk/21.html

Posted in Transport | Print | No Comments »

08/07/2008 by admin.

Just switched from Internet Explorer to Safari for a change and you know what? I think I might stick with it!

Posted in technology | Print | No Comments »

08/07/2008 by admin.

Watching Transport questions in the Commons and revising my opinion of Rosie Winterton. I’m sure she cares not a fig about my opinion but I think I have been unfair. She is growing into the role and needs to be taken more seriously than I ever imagined.Meanwhile, her boss Ruth Kelly is  waffling on high speed lines and the Woodhead Tunnel  - about which she says that Rosie Winterton assures her that it is “on the table”!!!!!?????

Posted in Transport | Print | No Comments »

07/07/2008 by admin.

Right at the spot on the Rochdale Canal where I saw the Kingfisher, this morning I saw a mink! Well fed and healthy, he stared at me and I stared at him until he got bored and disappeared down a grate.

Good job the boys didn’t see him. Then the fur would have flown!

Posted in Outdoors | Print | No Comments »