Well firstly my apologies for a too long absence. There are no excuses, except Christmas, New Year, Burns Night, lots of things to do (although few have got done), and of course GW (Global Warming, or perhaps Global Witlessness).

Christmas was spent in Wales, and very enjoyable it was. The journey (some 500 miles) done overnight in thick fog. I don't want to exaggerate, but from Carlisle to Cardiff the visibility was virtually nil and the journey only made by virtue of following large, well lit trucks and hoping that they knew where they were going. Arrived at our destination at 6.00am and very grateful we were too, especially for Mr Jones, without whose truck lights the Ross Spur would have been impassible.

Britains roads are atrociously bad, especially the Motorways, only partly lit and thus very dangerous in foggy conditions. Somewhere I read that only one country in Europe has a motorway system completely lit, Belgium or Denmark, probably the latter. It certainly wasn't the UK. Large stretches of the M6 are unlight, especially about 40 miles to the north of Birmingham. The M5 is partially lit and the Ross Spur not lit at all.

The journey back was the mirror image of the journey down. No fog upto Carlisle, although heavy traffic, then fog all the way up to Perthsire. Still, we made it home, no thanks to whoever is supposed to keep the roads in good order with all the enormous taxes one pays for the privelige of driving on them. Hanging a politician on every lampost used to be the French solution, which is why in Britain, the politicians have decided to reduce the number of lamposts to a minimum.

Which brings me to the current state of Britain. Well not quite, it is after all getting much too late to begin to catalogue the current disastrous state we find ourselves in. Perhaps tomorrow when I have got my strength back from checking yet another unsuccessful attempt to win the Lottery.