26/10/2009 by admin.

A couple of weeks ago, a gym-owning friend of mine expressed some mild horror at the fact that I was able to go to the gym at Todmorden Sports Centre at 7am, an hour before the instructor started work. “What about Health and Safety?” he asked.

What indeed…

This morning, two of the three treadmills were not working properly. I was on the only one which was when a fellow fitness seeker of advancing years decided to switch off the mains plug to see if the two miscreants would reset themselves when switched back on.

But he managed to switch all three off – almost propelling me through the mirror on the wall in front of the machines.

Not wanting to upset him, I did not protest…and I swear he didn’t even realise what he had done!

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17/09/2009 by admin.

Continuing the rural idyll, we went to two shows…very different in nature. To be honest the Westmorland Show at Crooklands was too busy and because we didn’t realise how early it started, we were caught in the most horrendous traffic jam. The sun shone and the crowds broke all records. It took us two hours to get there from Staveley, no more than half a dozen miles away – and ten minutes to get back.

When we enquired at the terrier ring about Lakelands, one winner looked at Roxy and said, with all the snobbery and contempt of a working dog owner: “Oh, the way she’s cut, you want the Kennel Club Show over there by the pylon.”

Over there by the pylon turned out to be in a separate field altogether and I wondered why the two events were kept so separate. It was a small affair and by the time we got there, it was winding up. There wasn’t a Lakeland Terrier in sight.

The highlight was a travelling sheep show introduced by a New Zealander living in Dereham, Norfolk…and awfully long way from the Lake District.

He introduced several different breeds, cracked a few jokes, and then sheered a sheep. Brilliant.

The International Sheep Dog Trial at Lowther Park, near Penrith was an altogether quieter affair. We watched one or two of the competitors, getting a free commentary from an old retired farmer from North Yorkshire who knew everyone and how good they were.

Watch a demonstration at the show by a chap from Cheshire at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElVt-RwNRNc

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16/08/2008 by admin.

Manchester’s city fathers can surely take a lot of credit for the haul of Olympic cycling gold medals in China.

I was one who didn’t see the point of the Velodrome - now the hq of British cycling. Wouldn’t it be just to hold the 2012 cycling events there?

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