50+ and proud of it.

These RimTec guys seem to know what they're doing. The tyre people (A2 Tyres, Sittingbourne) spun up the rims whilst putting a new pair of Falkens on and were singularly impressed with their "trueness". Indeed the MOT bloke remarked "Those rims are good, the other one was was like a threepenny bit too, and they've fixed that proper-like an' all." If I'd know it was like a breast then I wouldn't have got it fixed. Hey-ho. BTW: The computerised MOT stuff gets updated almost immediately - taxed it tonight at 6:00pm after MOT at 8:30am.

I read yesterday that Jade Goody had finally lost her fight against cervical cancer. I heard on Radio Kent this morning that Ms Goody had died yesterday from her illness. I heard the news on Radio One this lunchtime and again read it on Ceefax tonight. This irritated me somewhat. No one deserves to get cancer. And certainly no one deserves to die of it. What got me was that exactly 2 years ago, Ellen died of cancer. It never made Radio Kent, it never made the local paper, it never even made the Parish Newsletter. Both left a husband and two children. Then it dawned on me - Ellen knew where East Anglia was...

Just after I got the Brabus I managed to hit a *large* pothole on a country road. No, I didn't see it coming - it was dark... The tyre went flat and I took it to my local tyre place. "'Ere, did you know there's a dent in the rim?". Surely not(!). "If it goes down again, then it need fixing". It never went down again. It went through two Merc services. "Did Sir know there's a dent in the rim? If the tyre goes down, it needs fixing." It still hasn't gone down after 11 months. Now, a few days ago I tried to tax the smart online. 'No MOT found.' I think I can say for certain that ANPR Cameras don't flag "no MOT's" on the grounds that mine ran out last October . The MOT man gave me a severe talking to. "This could have exploded, killed someone, caused The World To End" etc etc. It still hasn't gone flat. However, a red ticket is still a red ticket. I rang Lepsons. They had a week's waiting list. A

The Chuckle Brothers turned up this morning to pipe in the new fire. Usual stuff - "put this there", "miss that", "don't break the hearth" and the like and, "how do you want paying?". "Put the kettle on, and we'll leave a note". Fair enough, I left them wrestling with rolls of 8mm copper piping and various brass fittings that could have come from DS9. I went home to find a note that (briefly) said "That'll be 90 quid please and we can't let you turn it on 'cos you need a 100mm 2 airbrick in the room." WTF? My neighbour had to have one drilled and it cost her an arm and a leg. I rang him up in a panic. "Um, what's wrong with the airbrick in the ceiling that's already there?" There was a profound silence and then muffled conversation as Paul asked Barry how he missed it. "Err, we'll come clean, we didn't spot it. How big is it?" " 100mm 2 ", I lied, "It'