IF YOU thought it was only York which had looked askance as the new ftr "superbus" took to the streets a week ago, then think again.

The grumblings from city residents - not rejoicing at the launch of the self-styled StreetCar - have been so loud, they've even attracted the attention of hacks in London.

A piece in The Guardian's G2 section yesterday reported what we already knew - that the pages of The Press were "buzzing" with comments from residents who were still frantically struggling to get on with the new "hi-tech" vehicles.

Writer Andrew Clark stated the obvious when he said the first seven days of ftr had "not been a smooth ride".

But responding to the article's comments, FirstGroup was defiant. A spokesman told The Guardian that York sceptics who had put the boot into ftr were "people who just don't like new things, adding: "Apparently there were complaints about Stephenson's Rocket when it was introduced."

OUR cartoonist, Wolf, has egg on his muzzle. He got the wrong spelling of Wigginton in his 'Wheelie Bin' cartoon last week, making the common error of adding an extra 'g'.

He has sent us this grovelling apology:

"Wolf wishes to apologgise to the ggood people of Wigginton, for the misspellingg of their villagge name in a recent drawingg. He promises it won't happen aggain"

We'll see, Wolfie.

WHEN in Rome, do as the Romans do - shop at McArthurGlen, of course.

York shopper Claire Hughes was gobsmacked on a recent trip to the Italian capital to see a huge street advertisement for the Naburn designer outlet, pictured right.

In fact, it was for the Castel Romano Outlet of this oh-so-British shopping experience, but Claire could not believe McArthurGlen had managed to get a passport and find its way abroad.

"I did get to see the Colisseum but it was a flying visit and I missed out on the designer outlet. Shame," she moaned.

Venus knows why Claire did not realise the connection. McArthurGlen was obviously brought over to our cold shores with the first Roman occupation of Eboracum in 71AD.

Updated: 11:09 Tuesday, May 16, 2006