Ertblog

Did you overtake diesel locomotive Alycidon on the M1?

I was driving south from Leeds on the M1 last Thursday (19 June 2008) when I spotted a large object on a lowloader in the slow lane. As I drew closer I saw to my amazement that it was a huge diesel locomotive, Alycidon.

A quick Google search threw up the website of the Deltic Preservation Society, which revealed that the 47 year old class 55 loco was heading for my part of the world - an open day at Quainton Road in Buckinghamshire. The giant engine, named after the horse that won the 1949 Ascot Gold Cup, hauled British Railways' crack east coast expresses from 1961 to 1981. It's fair to say that Alycidon was rather quicker on the main line than the M1!

A less than secret squirrel

This bold squirrel was enjoying his dinner within a few feet of our living room window.

 

It's game over for Shoot magazine

I was saddened by Ian MacMillan's report in today's Guardian that IPC was axing Shoot, the children's football magazine.

I was an avid Shoot reader when I was growing up in the 1970s. I remember vividly reading Shoot's story about Bill Shankly's resignation as Liverpool manager in 1974 under the heading 'Thanks, Shanks!'. That same issue had a free 'league ladder', with cardboard tags for every English league club. Readers could move the tabs to reflect the clubs' fortunes in the new season. In the early days of that season, I duly placed the tab representing Carlisle United at the pinnacle of English football before reality intervened and the border club were relegated from division one.

My other favourite magazines were Look In, Look and Learn and Cricket & Co. The latter was a lavishly produced magazine with a more literary approach, with poems and short stories. Sadly it succumbed after just a few months. Its fate seemed to set a pattern - too many of my favourite magazines have disappeared, including more recently On Your Bike, Cycling Today and Digital Video Techniques!

Living with teenagers: The Guardian's column bows out

For almost two years, Karen and I have enjoyed the Living with Teenagers column in the Guardian's Saturday Family supplement. It's a mother's weekly report from the family front line. It alternates between hysterical and cringeworthy. We've read it with a degree of trepidation since Karen fell pregnant last October, knowing that we could well be facing similar traumas in little more than a decade.

Living with Teenagers has been missing for the last couple of weeks. Odd, we thought. you'd have assumed the author would have filed a couple of spare editions before going on holiday. Today's Guardian came with the explanation: the author's children had finally rumbled the anonymous writer and the column was over. Farewell Eddie, Becca and Jack, the noms de plumes of the real teenagers. In today's feature, 'Jack' wrote about his experience in discovering his unknown fame:

" ...They all began to explain my predicament: for the past two years my mum had been publishing (on a fucking weekly basis) all goings on within our household. And, completely unknown to me, they'd all been reading it, and for quite a few weeks now they'd all been certain it must be my mum, but hadn't said anything for fear of embarrassing me.

"At first, due to having friends with an incredibly imaginative habit of pranks, I refused to believe it. It was a joke, right? But no. That's when I was to find out that it was not only true, but it had also been made into a book and three out of 10 of my friends already owned it! I took a deep breath, gathered my thoughts and asked how long they'd known? "'Bout as long as we've known you, Jack. My mum gave it to me," answered Thea, slightly forlornly."

I couldn't help wondering if the whole thing was a complete fabrication. But assuming it isn't, hats off to that mother for daring to expose the inner-most secrets of her family for two years without anyone finding out. They're obviously not Guardian readers!