Local Blogs
A very merry credit crunch Christmas
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08/10/2008
Credit crunch and Christmas, both begin with ‘C’ – and the similarity doesn’t end there.Christmas, a happy time? In fact, it sees a frighteningly high suicide rate, it’s the Samaritans’ busiest time and mountains of marriages hit the rocks come January 1.Likewise, the credit crunch has seen calls...
A very merry credit crunch Christmas
When my pal Nigel was at the Crossroads
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08/10/2008
HANDS up all those Derby County fans that remember Nigel Cleevely.True, you will have to have followed the Rams during a relatively short and fairly modest period in their rich and varied story. Or be sufficiently interested in the club's history to know everything there is to know. Or maybe your dad...
When my pal Nigel was at the Crossroads
No diamonds
Saved on
07/10/2008
Lucy’s column for October 7.Drivelo…1That promised diamond ring becomes more Zirconian by the minute, the cruise ship has drifted away to just a dot on some exotic horizon.In their place is a leak-free new roof on the kitchen extension, and a re-vamp of this office-cum-laundry-room-cum-pantry, which...
No diamonds
Why pick on us circus performers?
Saved on
01/10/2008
A QUESTION.... you've gone into a bank to inquire about opening a small deposit account.So do you expect to be asked if you've ever dabbled in sword swallowing or lion taming?I'll explain. When a financial maelstrom recently threatened to swallow the developed world, and economic Armageddon appeared...
Why pick on us circus performers?
Dustbins
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30/09/2008
Lucy’s column for September 30.Binlo…1Oh dear, just as we are lulled into the false sense of security that in Derby, at least, our bin men are more benevolent than bullying, we get a slap on the wrist at Orgill Towers. Our crime? We put a plastic bag of hedge clippings in the brown wheelie, on top of...
Dustbins
When wasting food was a criminal offence
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24/09/2008
DURING the Second World War, a chap called Archibald Brown was fined £4, plus £6 costs, for wasting butter, margarine, cheese, lard, bread, bacon, pickles and preserved plums.His crime? He threw them at his wife.The solicitor representing the Ministry of Food told the court at Wincanton in Somerset:...
When wasting food was a criminal offence
Fox Watch
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23/09/2008
Lucy’s column for September 23.Foxlo..1We’ve been on fox watch for the past fortnight, which means hail, rain, and even that rare itzy bitzy shining moment, has found us huddled in a corner of the copse – okay, two fir trees and a bush – waiting for a special visitor.Oh, we’ve fed foxes for years, and...
Fox Watch
Watch the birdie … 40 years later
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17/09/2008
IT was a photograph, produced by Paul Walton at one of our Friday lunchtime get-togethers, that puzzled us. The personnel were obvious enough – Wally himself, Derek Grantham, John Cheadle and Derek Taylor – and, judging by the suits and haircuts, it was taken in the mid-1960s. But where?Wally is wearing...
Watch the birdie … 40 years later
Having the kids
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16/09/2008
Lucy’s column for September 16th.Kidslo…1It’s debatable who drew the short straw – daughter-in-law Claire, on an adventurous, 12-day trip to South Africa. Or the two of us – part-responsible for the grandchildren while she was away. I say part-responsible, because their dad, our son, Simon, was here,...
Having the kids
Americans? Are they adjusting their attitude?
Saved on
10/09/2008
YEARS ago, when I was involved in the forlorn venture of trying to educate Americans in the art of proper football, one of the delights – no, the only delight – of a long transatlantic flight was that moment after you’d checked-in to your hotel, thrown your case on the bed, and found the bar.Americans...
Americans? Are they adjusting their attitude?