Phil has just chuckled at the vulture he has seen roosting on an electricity pole which itself is at a jaunty angle and secured to another shorter post to maintain its integrity and its almost upright orientation. A curiosity that raises a smile but that we both now find unremarkable.

With the threat of fuel shortages soon, I topped up my tank at this petrol station this morning, drove next door to a small supermarket and while Chris shopped I walked back to the station’s cash machine. The screen said it was busy rebooting Windows 7 and scanning a faulty hard disk, so I thought better of inserting (and the machine perhaps permanently swallowing) my debit card. Turning round I was confronted by this truck filling up at the same pump as I had just used – it only just fitted under the station’s canopy.