Away then. Give us t'Crack.

Loosely translates as ''Come on then. Give me the News.''

Bear the following in mind.
1. We, ''they'' say, are in the midst of a recession.
2. We are skint, they tell us. Ergo we must draw in our horns and economise.

A friend of mine, more recently leaving the Fire Service happened to stop at our gate on his way home yesterday.
We promptly fell to reminiscing and, in my case, brain picking.

For instance...
''What's that great erection by Slapestones roundabout going to be?''

It transpires that our skint, boracic, down on its uppers County council is not only enlarging Slapestones roundabout to accomodate 3 trafic lanes ("Rotary I think that's only used in New England; most of the US says "traffic circle.") they are also building a new Fire Service Headquarters beside it: to include:-
Headquarters ... One was built at Cockermouth in 1984-86.
Training centre... Penrith Fire Station has been used as such for decades.
Fire Station... O.K. Penrith's is 40-50 yrs old.
Emergency Planning centre... Having been ousted from Carlisle castle.

Plus
New Fire Station at Patterdale.
New station at Workington.
2 new stations one north, one south of Carlisle.

Most emphatically watch THIS space.