Comment – Rain, rain, go away..
Last week, I treated several of the offspring to a night out at Rickerby’s Show in Carlisle. I say treat, as this was the ‘stuff of dreams’ back in the analogue world when yours truly was a boy. Needless to say the 14 year old farm manager was suitably impressed and immediately demanded a minimum 200Hp 50k Claas tractor (other brands are available) with a selection of accompanying implements (grass roller, harrows, link box springs to mind). Although he did say he would settle for some bib ‘n’ brace overalls.
On the other hand, whilst our 17 year old daughter was very impressed with the kit on offer, the simply splendid steak pie which the meat eating gentlemen of the party relished, did not cut it for the current vegetarian. Oh well, with Burger King and a ‘vegan’ burger (green face emoji) en route home later, all was well.
There was a lot of filming and posting selfies on and alongside almost every machine there, so I expect that brand coverage with teenage grammar school boys in the north of England is through the roof. If you have seen a spike in your metrics, let me know and she can raise the invoice!
What I found fascinating, was that I still get a thrill from seeing stuff close up and personal, whilst enjoying the social side of catching up with old friends and colleagues, who doesn’t? As a side effect, you may or may not see the odd post of mine on Facebook later on, amidst the lambing pics. I also was able to price up some grass seed and some other bits and bobs, all good.
The younger generation, on t’other hand, have another take on this, which is the imperative to ‘broadcast’ their every move. I have to think really hard about what to say, and how to say it, whereas the ‘yoof’ are happy to effectively stream their lives in a ‘oner’ almost constantly. I’m not sure who is right, but one thing is for sure, my daughter’s feed would have been much more interesting than mine.
Business is personal, we talk to who we like and we do business with who we trust, so in the example above, we met, talked, discussed, disagreed over pies (some of us) and left all the better for the experience. Long may the face to face continue.
In other news, I was fascinated to see that the Russians and Chinese are planning a nuclear reactor on the moon (what a time to be alive?) https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/russia-considers-putting-a-nuclear-power-plant-on-the-moon-with-china
The worlds first autonomous snow ploughs are hard at it (not here though) https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a60141758/the-worlds-first-autonomous-snowplows-are-in-service/
And finally what a difference a year makes https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/01/driest-february-england-signals-drought-ahead-experts
Stay dry and have a good week.
Andy, from the lambing shed
