The debonair Basil Marigold's

The last week has seen exceptional weather which can be rare for this time of year, but what has also been a rarer sights back too. A lesser spotted running me. Having now been an unfrequent runner, if put politely, over the last few years, certainly from the middle of 2008 onwards. Although I have done the odd half marathon or so since. What I haven't done is a systematic training plan, it's been get just enough to race and then stop, repeat. There have been enough valid reasons and unacceptable excuses over the years and enough to make me de-motivated enough to not really be bothered by this either. One of the valid reasons has been the increase in family members, while not being a burden, they have, in their own new born way, created havoc with our previous routines. We are having no other children so we shall now just watch them grow and go to bed earlier, so the really valid reason is no more, no more excuses either so with no more adequate defences, like Kasparov against

Sadly it's true. I have over the previous year been saving what money has come my way, such as birthday and christmas, etc. Mainly because I haven't managed to think of anything I really wanted at all and to a certain extent I have managed to curb my excesses by my lovely wife, who has been nothing if not a calming influence, at times. I have managed to curb my love of books and CD's but this has been helped by not really having or making time to read of late with a young family and the library has been, as always a good source of reading material. The Notts catalogue has always been superior to the Devon catalogue and when I had to buy books because there was, at that point, no internet and therefore I had read most of the books from the local libraries within a 10mile radius. The music was pretty similar as now with Spotify I have access to most decent new music coming out and my back catalogue of music is as it has always been, excellent and well balanced from Led Zeppel

While passing through the local town on a few errands I passed the local travel agents so I decide to have a little window shopping. When I came across the most bizarre holiday advert I have seen. Usually there are lots of card board rectangles, advertising 14 days in Ibiza, 7 days in Gran Canaria, 3 day city break to Paris, etc. Now I am not sure whether its the demographic of where I live but my heart sank when I spotted this in the window and I decided that there and then I don't think I'll be taking them up on the offer of this holiday. It just didn't appeal to me, not like Barcelona, Vienna or Budapest..... .....Croydon?

A nice, good news story I think, but a little aggrieved I wasn't in the Bradford area, when due to human error, probably called Kevin. Asda set their forecourt fuel price by misplacing the decimal point! BBC News - Asda sold 12.9p petrol by mistake in Bradford Instead of selling it for £1.29. The unmanned pay at the kiosk machines had been set to charge at 12.9 pence per litre! This became, somewhat unsurprisingly, the most popular fuel stop in the Bradford area, one bloke paid £4.23 for 32.77litres of petrol. At normal prices that would have been £42! saving himself a rather tidy, £38. And yes, there did appear to be the 'odd' person returning to fill jerry cans of fuel. And the moral of this story? Well according to the trading standards officer ' "Generally speaking retailers, whether they sell petrol or whatever, generally have to sell it at the price it is advertised at," he said. "So if it is advertised at the pump at a low price, then it is just a

For those of you out there who are aware of me know I have a small love of a nice and refined slipper. A well chosen slipper is like a well chosen dog. They are practically useful and can become a close companion and give you many years of love, if well looked after. Indeed, you cannot be classed a gentleman, I would propose, without possessing a pair of slippers preferably, luxurious. I live my philosophy. Imagine my delight when I had to purchase a second pair of slippers which will reside in the new home of the in-laws. Like that gun dog companion, they will sit and wait at this house and await their masters arrival, then they will provide that quiet but elegant slipper refinement with no complaint they will merely serve. Today I set out with my family to purchase the second pair of slippers. I achieved most of my goals. The only thing I failed in was that my chosen slipper colour is a deep maroon. They did not have maroon, the choice was black or dark blue. I went for the dark bl

When our friends first invited us away and mentioned Derwent reservoir, I initially thought that this was somewhere in Derbyshire. This is because the only place I know of 'derwent' is related to Derbyshire, a lovely county though. When I discovered that there is another Derwent further north then it all started to click together! After our arrival we went and had a nice walk around the reservoir, which is an exceptionally impressive piece of state overriding nature. The Roman's would have been pleased with this, they had a huge pride in harnessing nature as it meant they were more powerful than Gods, which is a long story but an interesting one, which I may relate one day. Derwent Reservoir was created by flooding the valley, and unlike the Derwent Reservoir in Derbyshire there is no small villages submerged by the flooding, it was just a vast expanse of farmland, although at very low water levels there is a small road bridge that will pop up to show the old roadway. But