THE interesting thing about digging into the Whitehaven News archives is that you never know what you will find.

After the Christmas lights and fireworks, it seemed that it was now time to face the cold realities of life again - and especially the galloping inflation, the high energy bills and the other woes that are besetting us at the moment.

So we typed 'inflation' into our archive searcher and look what we found!

Apart from the children at Monkweay School's visit from Credit Union representatives teaching them 25 ways to save money, there was nothing at all about hard times or economic strife.

'Gas' just produced photos of events that had been sponsored by gas companies.

The end result is that instead of worrying about inflation, we can instead look at some inflatables and the only lesson we can learn is that there doesn't seem to be much that cannot be inflated.

We have that huge inflatable 'thing' children are enjoying in the Duke Street swimming pool in Whitehaven.

To be honest, I think if I had seen this thing as a child I would have run away screaming! I think it is meant to be some kind of octopus but don't take my word for that.

Then there is that huge inflatable ball before it is launched into the Whitehaven harbour with acrobats inside who are going to perform for a delighted audience.

It reminded me a little too much of the white ball that would chase Number Six (Patrick McGoohan) around the village in the fascinating but quite bizarre television series, The Prisoner. 

With a son who was a huge fan of the series, even though it was well after his time, we could not avoid a trip to Portmeirion where it was filmed. It is the most beautiful, individual and still quite creepy place in the British Isles.

The Marine Mammal Rescue team held a rescue course at the Falcon Club in Egremont.

What a fantastic thing to do. Participants learned about how to save the lives of animals such as beached whales and baby seals. Brilliant!

So that is it. The real inflation is with us and it will be extremely hard for many and beyond any humour. But take five minues out and have a look at these retro photos of inflatables and we hope it cheers you up for at least a while!