WELL, didn't we have a typical start to Leigh holiday week.

After two weeks of fairly decent weather the heavens opened.

I thought of the poor people who had headed for a break in this country as stair rods rattled down all day Sunday.

But I should think most people have headed for the sun, judging by the number of people flocking around Manchester Airport's Terminal 2 on Saturday morning.

The situation there with traffic wardens is ridiculous.

I was collecting relatives arriving back from abroad, and because their plane arrived 35 minutes early didn't feel the necessity to find a place on the expensive car park.

All it needed was for me to jump out, find them in the arrivals lounge and get back to the car as quickly as possible.

But would traffic wardens let you do that. No indeed. There were four marching up and down the pick-up points ticketing drivers who had the nerve to leave their vehicle there for a minute.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.