‘There’s a Pokémon in the Lloyd Cockermouth fridge’, said one of the chaps on reception, returning, I presume, from the kitchen. Much bemused chortling from we grown-ups, waiting for our cars. (I assume young Pokémon will long-since have moved on, so it’s reasonably safe to reveal its whereabouts. Those Mini people are so nice, I’d…
Author: hacketteonthehow
Gateway to the lakes…
Browsing the glossy sales brochure for the soon-to-be Strawberry Grange, I was fascinated to read that Cockermouth is ‘often described as the gateway to the Lake District’. It’s not an expression I’ve ever heard and nor had a straw poll of friends who’ve lived here all their lives. Surely you have to drive through or past most…
Markets and marketing
You can’t beat a bit of creative marketing. And our decision, following last year’s floods, to delay the Big Day until our hotel of choice could accommodate us, has certainly opened up a range of marketing opportunities – some not quite as obvious as others. It’s the law of unintended consequences at work again except, on this occasion, the consequences are all good….
Weddings and water
‘Customers!’ The simple, heartfelt greeting from one very excited bar man, as the first of our friends to check in to the Trout Hotel for our Big Day, strode into his bar. His first of the day. In fact, the first two guests to check in to the hotel at all since 6 December 2015. Now here they…
Kidnapped
When it comes to stag dos, the under-25s are swearing off the alcohol in favour of ‘dry’ activities such as climbing, coasteering or generally risking life and limb over their livers. Or so said The Telegraph in June. Chilli Sauce, Britain’s largest stag celebrations company, has apparently reported a mere 30% of bookings involve alcohol –…
There but for fortune
It was thanks to the climbing gremlin we’d headed for Wales at the weekend. He and three other Cockermouth ‘rescue rock-rats’ had arranged to swap ideas with members of the Ogwen team on the Sunday. Would have been rude of me not to take the opportunity to visit too. Strange how the threads of life connect, often in the…
Footpaths and tea pods
First they came for the birds. Then the otters. Now, it would seem, they’re after our footpaths. Hackles were high again last weekend, up at Strawberry How, as dog walkers discovered their way barred – on a path, across the field from Tom Rudd Beck, which some of them have been wandering for nigh on forty years. I risk…
Flower power
Meanwhile, back on Planet Council (see Lidl post), not content with concreting over the place at every turn, our councillors – bless ’em all – have new plans for dystopia, in the form of CCTV cameras in town. Thanks to a ten grand grant (or whatever these things are termed) from Allerdale council, which is clearly…
Mad Men and women
As conspiracy theories go, it was right up my street. Having spent an entire career juggling pencils in all colours, shapes and sizes, and scribbling for a living (‘scribbling’ as a descriptor, in the world of TV storyboards, being the exact opposite of the studied accuracy of every mark I ever made, professionally), I know from…
Bugs and bunnies
First, the good news. The top soil is off. All that slurry, grass and cow poo gone. It’s raining (or was when I began writing this last night!). And, finally, the flies have left us. Not even the brown sticky stuff is the spectator sport it once was. Trouble is, the bugs may have departed…
Death and taxes
Tough times. Good to see campaigning for the EU Neverendum (as BBC Four’s News Quiz recently labelled it) halted, in respect for the tragic death of West Yorkshire MP Jo Cox, in her own constituency. Doubtless she would have felt completely at home there. Safe. Amongst friends. Such a beautiful young woman, so clearly loved by family…
Parallel lines
Back, at the weekend, from a two day visit to the old home ground (on the outskirts of Manchester), partly business, partly catching up with friends now not seen nearly as often as I’d like, and I’m struck by how much, in just two and a half years, I’ve absorbed this Cumbrian lifestyle. Take the flies….
Hackette on the How 