Flying cows to Cyprus and a nose machine to change how you look

You must have caught up on the fuss being made as to whether some women should have to wear high heels and fashionable clothing when they turn up for work.

How times change. I can well remember when women who worked in offices or in posts where they served the public were required to wear sensible footwear.

The wearing of slacks or trousers was forbidden and respectable skirts were the order of the day for staff and customers.

Next time you’re out shopping, just cast an eye at your fellow shoppers.

I think you’ll find that skirt wearers are very much in the minority.

I have mentioned that policemen and bank staff could not sport beards at one time and I thought this anti-beard nonsense was dead and gone.

But I did note that Qantas, the Australian airline, had stopped their pilots having handlebar or other long moustaches.

As I remember, even banks didn’t ban moustaches.

I can remember a few bank managers, probably ex-service, who wore quite splendid handlebar moustaches.

Some, having to wear sober business suits, often went in for quite garish waistcoats.

I can also remember that, in my early school teenage years, two fellow pupils were sent home for wearing their hair too long and another contemporary, with a crew cut, was sent home from his school until his hair had grown to an acceptable length.

I never had any such problems.

I wore my hair at an acceptable length – kept in place by slurps of Brylcreem.

It is quite amazing. We have actually been fighting, off and on, in Afghanistan since the first Afghan War of 1838.

Now I can’t imagine what combat must have been like for our soldiers.

But I suspect that they were attired in conventional British army uniforms and had to carry heavy arms and the like on their backs – scarcely ideal for marching in what must have been very hot weather.

But it must have been the same for the Afghan forces, you would think.

And you would be wrong, according to a piece in the Cumberland Pacquet of April 1843.

To quote: “Afghans have many advantages over our troops. One consists of dropping of their men fresh for combat. Each horseman takes a foot soldier behind him – and drops him when he has arrived at the spot he is required to fire from.”

My wife and I have holidayed in Cyprus for a number of years. And we have been impressed by the most excellent food we have enjoyed there, both in the houses of friends and some restaurants – especially the beef.

I know it could be a trifle fanciful, but some of this could be down to the efforts of some of our local farmers who bred quality animals and exported them to Cyprus.

It seems that the Cypriot farmers were impressed by the stockiness of the Friesians our local farmers had raised.

Ten Friesian heifers were flown to Cyprus, from Gatwick, in September 1963.

They came from the herds of TS Sibson, St Helen’s Farm, Flimby, and E Musgrave, Overend Farm, Greysouthen.

I am assuming that this was the first of many cattle exported from our area to Cyprus. Are we still exporting Friesians to Cyprus? Anyone know?

Are you completely happy with the way you look? If you are, aren’t you the lucky one.

Not too many people can gaze into a mirror without mentally complaining that something, whatever that might be, is just not right. It need not be serious. I know that hairdressers are happy that people with straight hair would like to go curly – and vice versa.

The mousey haired would like to be vivacious blondes and, in this day and age, some women – and men – want hair all the colours of the rainbow, although I do suspect that some have had a go at colouring their own hair and it has all gone wrong. It is all good news for the beauty industry.

Just glance at the pages in Victorian newspapers and you will realise that it always has been.

We know that anyone unhappy with their nose can opt for plastic surgery nowadays.

In 1881, changing nose shape was often a DIY job with an “Alec Ross’s Nose Machine” if you wore it for an hour a day.

Sounds painful!