YOU must forgive me eating my Cornish pasty while I write this, but I’ve quite a few to get through — this panic buying was not such a good idea.

I have to admit, though, that I felt much better when I reached the front of the queue at the petrol station and ‘filled up’.

As I waited and was looking around it seems we are completely littered with cars.

In most residential areas they are parked both sides of the road with barely enough room to drive through.

What is the solution?

I fear there isn’t one and it’s going to get worse, as we all want our cars and, in many families, more than one.

The streets of our towns were not built with individual car ownership in mind, and now no one seems to mind or worry about leaving what is probably their most expensive possession outside on the street, uncovered and unprotected. Garaging is no longer a ‘must’.

I think I have been guilty of treating my car a bit like another room.

Last week I was being a trial ‘guinea pig’ for that new car wash which has opened at the top of King Street, so I thought that I had better clear out the stuff in it first, what a selection!

There were coats, a cushion, magazines, even a couple of empty pop bottles and other debris, too numerous to mention, but the joy when it emerged looking brand new and smelling so sweet!

I shall have to have it done more often.

I should have gone to the Mayor’s dinner last Friday night but I seem to have caught Bill’s cold and was really bad.

I must have been, as I’m not one to miss a do, especially as I had already paid for it! It goes right against my Scottish upbringing.

We were talking about the times, long ago, when your ‘young man’ walked you home. My always strict dad shouted down to John one night ‘Hey, are you stopping here all night’?

John replied ‘Thank you very much, Mr Womack, but my mum will be worried if I’m not home by 11!’