Ms J asked where my rain hat was when I arrived at her front door this morning doing a pretty decent impression of a drowned rat. "Well it is January" we both agreed and I promised I'd try and stay out of the rain on the walk to the world's politest supermarket, where it was both quiet and thankfully dry.

A quick tour around surprisingly deserted aisles to collect everything that Ms J wanted this week, pleasant catch up with the now familiar checkout lady, and when I stepped outside even the sun was trying to breakout through the heavy clouds. "There's even snow forecast for the weekend" I mentioned to Ms J as I received my weekly slathering of antibac gel, "Don't worry" she says "I won't be going out".