The Lakes
I'm now officially on holiday for two weeks and heading, this week, to the Lake District where Mrs Z. has fond memories of childhood summers with her parents. I have less find memories of crowded villages and snakes of traffic heading from one lake-side resort to another....but we shall see. I've already noticed that dual carriageways in this part of the world are not like those we have at home. They tend to paint a broken white line down the middle of a slightly wider single carriageway and leave the rest to the skill of the drivers.
Being here does give me a chance to listen to 大象传媒 Radio Cumbria. The signal tends to come and go a littles as you drive through the hills. Sometimes we hear the commercial station C.F.M. and at other we pick up 大象传媒 Radio Lancashire.
Interesting to hear that the local traffic and travel news includes items about the First Scotrail services through Dumfries and Kilmarnock.
Beer gardens - always popular in English villages - have become the haven of the newly displaced smokers. Yes, the puffing ban is now in force here which deprives us Scots of making pompous boats about the clean air in pubs and restaurants.
How shall we restore that sense of cultural superiority? Perhaps we should now ban something else. I nominate pork scratchings...what say you?