I was a little surprised the other day when I had bought some free-range eggs (look, I’m quite happy to eat the unborn children of chickens, but only if those chickens have been kept in relatively reasonable conditions) to discovery the allergy advice given on the box. Just in case you can’t quite make out [...]

Ahoy there, ye scurvy swabs. Many of ye, me hearties, will already know that it be International Talk Like A Pirate Day today where ye has to talk in the pirate lingo as much as is possible. Anyone failin’ to talk like a proper swashbucklin’ buccaneer will find themselves consigned to Davy Jones’ Locker after [...]

So, yesterday I posted about the complete shambles that was enrolment at Gateshead College, and suggested that I really wasn’t happy with what they had done. I had two separate lines of response from them. Because I don’t believe in directly naming people, I’m going to call them “A” and “B”. “A” contacted me over [...]

I went to Gateshead College last week to sign up for AS Level English on the afternoon of Monday 7th September. Quite a simple procedure, one would think. I had telephoned the previous Friday to check that there were spaces available on the course, and that I should turn up between 4pm and 6pm to [...]

I’m quite into local history and finding out about stuff I didn’t know, so I’m quite a fan of Heritage Open Days, where you generally get a chance to see certain historical thingummies and find out about them for free. Obviously, the “for free” part is another thing which adds to the attractiveness of the [...]

It troubles me that Jack is the most popular name for boys for the thirteenth year in a row. Obviously it’s slightly flattering that so many people want to name their children after me (I can’t think why else — the sudden surge in popularity coincided with me at university, where I can only presume [...]

Just in case you missed this one — and you probably did — I thought it was worth bringing to your attention because it is the sort of thing that you really shouldn’t miss. Basically, a company who manufacture sweets for children have taken to putting explicit pornography on the sweet wrappers. At least, that’s [...]

There was a lot in the press recently about English holidaymakers drinking a lot of alcohol whilst on holiday. One quote in particular caught my eye: English holidaymakers are turning to drink on their breaks with the average adult consuming eight alcoholic drinks a day, a survey suggests.BBC News: English Turn To Booze On Holiday [...]

I recently came across something on the Health and Safety Executive site called myth of the month where they set out to debunk some health and safety myths about the Health and Safety Executive being miserable killjoys. Ho ho, a bunch of health and safety myths. This’ll be a bit of a laugh. Chortle. And [...]

The one thing more glorious than a ‘tacheis a ‘tache that raises cashTacheBack.com Keith Lemon is the face behind TacheBack 2009. He’s backing it because not only is growing a ‘tache one of the most exhilarating things a man can do, it’s also being used to raise money for research into prostate and testicular cancer. [...]