From. Jos Biggs 

Before I launch into my story about the wandering habits of post boxes and the scarcity of sheep I would like to take a moment to reflect on the dreadful situation in the Ukraine.

Awful as it is, footage of the suffering endured by the military and civilians on all sides during the two World Wars is history. History which we all hoped and believed would put an end to such all-out slaughter forever.

However, what we see now is history in the making - right now, as we sip our coffee.

I fervently pray that our children, and our children’s children will never experience the horrors now being shown daily on the telly.  

We are seeing history in the making. In our own separate ways let us try to affect that history for the better. 

Let us hope and pray for the survival of the Ukraine. But if it falls, do we really want an invincible Putin to continue his dream, roll remorselessly over the rest of Europe and end up as our nearest neighbour?

Today's Tale.

I set about Friday with a firm purpose of achievement.

I was going to Endesa to ask them why I hadn’t had a bill. If not having a bill meant that I didn’t owe them any money that would be fine, but that was not the case - they’d had enough money out of my account to pay for a Mediterranean cruise, but hadn’t admitted the fact in writing!

The counter girl checked my address, and somehow magically my Buzon had transposed itself from 64 to 72. Maybe it was bored with being 64 for so long, and decided that it might be fun to be 72 instead.

However, with no further ado she put it firmly back in its place, and I left. As I got to the roundabout out of town I remembered that I was going to Iceland to get a lamb shank - last time I went they didn’t have any.

I circled the roundabout again to back where I had started, parked, and - they didn’t have any this time either!

Never mind, if I can’t get a lamb shank maybe I can get a Shaun the Sheep. I am fully aware that a Shaun the Sheep isn’t edible, but I have a hankering after putting him in my garden, where he can stand in cement glory along with the rest of my menagerie.

So far my quest for Shaun had taken me unsuccessfully to 3 separate Garden Centres, but I hadn’t yet been to Hortiflor. Today I was going past it, so today I would!

The road has changed since I last went to Hortiflor - it has spawned another roundabout, but I had a handle on its attempts to flummox me! I turned confidently in where I always used to turn confidently in, pulled into the cemetery car park and gazed gloomily at the Hortiflor entrance right opposite - but which was now on a parallel road where no road had been before!

I would have to go back down the road, round the roundabout and select the correct exit.

I sighed and set off for home suffering with a nasty case of CBB (Can’t Be Bothered)

As I was passing I would have called in at Mercabox to get a much needed curtain and pole, but I was cold, it was raining and my CBB affliction wouldn’t allow it.

It’s just my luck - for months I’ve been passing flocks of Shaun the Sheeps in every Garden Centre and thinking how cute he was but telling myself that I had nowhere to put him.

Now I’ve found somewhere, and there isn’t a Shaun the Sheep to be found anywhere!

So Friday was all purpose but no achievement! Not even a curtain pole to show for my efforts!