Yasser, Andy, Pompey and a stick insect

Now what's he on about I hear you ask, well all the above except the stick insect have one thing in common - I will let you work it out by which time I would expect you to have also deduced that I share something in common with them all.......

As For Mr Stick Insect the connection is rather tenuous but it did appear in my garden recently and here is the photograph to prove it



It seems that they are not uncommon in this part of the country, escapees from schools and the like are to blame apparently.

As for the others, Mr Arafat and Mr Lloyd Webber and, I am reliably informed by "N" Mr Stephen Fry, will all be sharing something fairly soon. What a happy bunch they must be once they realsie they have the same natal day as yours truly. Before you reach for the cards and present wrapping let me say here and now I will almost certainly not be celebrating it this year, I am now at an age where these occasions seem to have lost their magic. No more jelly and ice cream, cake and cucumber sandwiches, just perhaps a fish and chip supper somewhere on the coast, overlooking the sea with the sun setting on the horizion - under an umbrella probably. Ho Hum, a few more and I officially qualify for "Grumpy Old Man" status, a bus pass and free prescriptions, what joys I have to look forward too. Have a good week readers.

PS. I found the words to my favourite song on the web and as the late Dusty Springfield had such a huge influence on my adolescent years I wanted to pay tribute to a remarkable lady, for lady she was in every sense of the word.