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Bad start to the day
Originally uploaded by The original SimonB

Eagle-eyed readers will already have spotted what greeted me when we left the house this morning. It seems that somewhere on the way home last night my car got screwed (click pick to go through the Flickr and you can see the actual screw in the next image - top class photo reporting here!). And of course this particular tyre has only been on for two weeks. Fortunately I bought some with a lifetime guarantee which includes accidental damage so it was repaired OK at no cost.

This is only my second puncture in 21 years behind the wheel, so I guess I've been pretty lucky. The first was within days of having moved up to Felixstowe. Mum and I were heading in to Ipswich to meet Dad for lunch, taking some rubbish to the tip on the way. I was still on L plates at that point. Having turned off the A45 onto the road up to the tip we immediately noticed a real rumble, limped a bit further up to the next village and pulled over. As this was 1989 we weren't equipped with mobiles so while I started emptying the boot to get the spare Mum went in search of a phoen to warn that we would be late.

She was able to flag down a passing police motorbike before I had finished unloading. Turned out not to be a copper but a mechanic taking the bike for a test ride so he gallantly did the tyre change for us in about thrity seconds flat.

My only other experience of a flat tyre was at the age of 10 or 11 on the way back from a chess tournament (I wasn't playing, just supporting my friend Howard). His dad had to do a change in the dark with us two far enough away from the edge of the road to be safe but near enough to hold a torch for him.

Here's hoping it can be another 10 or more years until the next one.

Sources of annoyance

Came home tonight to find the third charity bag through the door in as many days. Whay have they all decided to target us this week? Something to do with the distributors having been off over the school hols perhaps? They have all gone straight back outside where they will no douibt sit on the drive for a week before we give up and thrown them in the bin. I've never known an empty one be picked up for re-use despite them promising to. When we have clothes to get rid of they are generally in no fit state to go on to anyone so these bags really are a waste of time. So on that note, here are a few more things annoying me riight now...

Masterchef - The Professionals. Who the hell thought up the broadcast format for this? Having 45 minutes per group of hopefuls rather than 30 is great, but why is the first show split over two days? Makes no sense at all. Loving the show though, nice to see people who think they can do it all making the same mistakes as the amateurs.

People phoning up to complain about bus shelters. Especially the ones who see a pole or kerb go in and assume we will follow it up with a shelter. If only I had the budget. (OK, that's a pretty specific moan that won't be relevant to most people!)

Dark evenings. Autumn isn't supposed to come on this quickly. When I come home from work I want to enjoy a nice light evening still, not be thinking about putting the lights on to make the drive. It is still only September after all.

The Beatles remasters being yet again full-price discs. Haven't they had enough money off us all over the years? They should have done the decent thing and made them bargains. Especially when the first three albums would probably fit together on one CD.

Not being able to remember the other thing I was going to moan about!