Pondering at the petrol station

In common with a former work colleague, I share a dislike of petrol stations. It's not that they don't provide a vital service; simply that I'd rather be somewhere other than idlling in a queue waiting for the car in front to inch forwards, before it gets to my turn to stand in the arctic wind tunnel that is an obligatory design feature of all forecourts, and fill up.

A local supermarket usually has cheaper fuel than elsewhere, something that hasn't escaped the notice of a large proportion of the local electorate. To buy fuel there means to feel smug that you've saved a few quid, at the expense of your temper which may have been frayed by the inordinately long time it has taken to get to the pump.

People watching has become my sanity-restoring saviour. Protected by the glass windows of their vehicles, drivers and passengers alike imagine themselves invisible and that open windows allow no noise to drift from the cars. Texts are sent and received, loud 'phone calls detailing either the entire itinerary for the recipient's day, the importance of a delivery being made on time, or telling so and so to go and 'fxxx' themselves are commonplace. Noses are picked,

Trafalgar Square - 4th Plinth

Groundworks are underway in the Celestial Swamp that reflect both the passage of time spent here, and preparations for the years to come.  And I am not referring to the building of a jetty nor a mooring point for a dinghy - with a recent spell of dry-ish weather and no longer fearing hitting water if we dig, the builders and their team are here to construct some heady additions to the moorland dwelling.

Former earthworks have been levelled, much to the joy of the chickens who clearly think that the stretch of flattened earth is designed solely for them as a worm farm; and what was once a grassy area overhung with pretty willow branches has become another parking space to cater for the increasing number of teens keen to show off their new found mobility by rocking up in their cars and undertaking multiple-point turns in the driveway. Now we have enough space for the latest seventeen year old to practice his reversing skills without my flinching too much at the proximity of the house, tree or me!

Our 'one big push and it'll fall down' stable has been demolished, another will replace it - a small step on the slippery slope towards a four-legged lawn-mower!

But the piece de resistance, (can't work out how to do accents on the blog), of these works is the oil tank. Out with the old metal tank rusting away quietly and in with an edifice that has a support block looking remarkably like a sacrificial altar to the god of concrete. Atop this sits an enormous green oil tank, a design of moulded green plastic worthy of a slot on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth. Large enough to house a  family of six; it is ugly enough to provoke discussion and practical enough to last the anticipated tenure in the centre of London. I'm going to suggest it to Boris!

E is for exams

When Michael Gove's predecessors determined that exams would be taken from mid-May to the end of June, did they ever stop to wonder how to marry the mind of a truculent teen with the need to spend hours bending over books? In the 21st Century, this should read: staring at a screen and remembering the ancient art of putting pen to paper and making notes on information imbibed.

Our academic year ends soon, providing a welcome break over the ludicrously named 'summer months', but once in a while we're taken by surprise; the sun does shine, bees buzz and flowers nod in homage to the yellow globe in the sky purported to be giver of life - and suntans. Starved of sunshine and vitamin A for months on end, these GCSE/A/degree students long to stretch lily limbs in the light, to lie in the grass and gaze at nothing whilst listening to music, heasdphones vibrating with noise so loud that anyone within a 400 metre radius also benefits from their choice of motivational melody.