I've been watching a UK-produced television show called Grumpy Old Men, that features middle-aged grumpies going on about the things that really get up their noses. These guys are contempories of mine and, boy, some of them are even grumpier than me.

Mrs Jarrett sits beside me and constantly interrupts the television programme as some old rocker from the Sixties complains about mobile phone users on the buses or Tony Blair's bluster. "That's you all over," she taunts.

Grumpies moan about the usual things. Inattentive Qantas stewardesses whose hips were never made for today's space-challenged budget airlines.

Media relations people who trumpet a press release about a hotel's appointment of a deputy, assistant acting sous chef. 

Other PR people who over use the word "discerning" in their releases, subtly suggesting that if you don't like the pampering package they're flogging, you're not at all discerning and should be locked up in a home for the ungrateful.

Grumpy Old Men froth at the mouth about made-for-morons reality TV shows, but they save their special ire for foot soldiers of the politically correct corps, people who want to change the way we run our lives, however politically incorrect they may be.

Just recently I read that bingo callers in Britain are consigning years of tradition to history because professional players don't like to hear "two fat ladies" called for the number 88. Game organisers say calls like "Legs 11" and Clickety Click 66" are distracting players who are concentrating on winning million pound jackpots.

In all fairness to us male grumpies, there is strong evidence that we are not as bad-tempered as people – mostly our wives - like to believe. Women, it appears, get as tetchy as Komodo dragons in their dotage.

New research in England reveals that women showed themselves to be far crosser than men. The older men get, the mellower they become.

Men and women showed the same levels of anger aged 18 to 25, but their eruption count sharply diverged as they aged.

By the time they are heading for their 40th birthday men are far less easily angered and the downward trend continues, though not at the same rate, during the ages of 41 to 60.

By contrast, women's anger levels remain the same throughout their lives.

Normally, I would pooh-pooh this research, figuring it was just someone attempting to justify a big government research grant, but now that I'm mellowing I'm prepared to believe it.

But please don't mention this to Mrs Jarrett. She'd just get angry.

Bare all for the Bulls
The big run takes place in Pamplona, Spain, again this year and I'm not just talking about the bulls.

The Running of the Nudes on July 5 is a protest against the Running of the Bulls two days later.

For those who want to take it all off in support of the bulls, log onto www.runningofthenudes.com.

This year, authorities are reported to be laying an anti-slip substance on a sharp bend in the road when tourists trying to outrun the bulls often come to grief.

But my mate, Juan, tells me that the bulls will benefit because they will be able to get back on their feet much quicker.

More tourists, Juan says, are likely to take the horns by the bull.



IAN JARRETT is based in Fremantle, Western Australia from where he travels frequently in Asia on assignments for travel magazines.

He is a member of the BamBoo Alliance, a group of leading travel writers in the region. He can be contacted at ianjarrett@mac.com