Yes, today is/was the first day of Autumn and as if like clockwork, the weather gave us a helping reminder. Love it! The blustery winds are here, as were the previous nights rainfall reminding us to search out that national icon - the umbrella. The temperature though is mild and perhaps will get back to normal (cool, breezy and chilly) in the coming week. Still on weather, the nations await with baited anticipation the forthcoming wrath of Rita. Oil is set to rise - again - and queues will undoubtedly follow at stations across the realm. It's ridiculous that you can actually forecast this kind of behaviour. If my car was on the road I'd be taking the pre-emptive action of doing the sensible, before time. Alas, that brings me on to what actually resulted in my car spending the coming night at the local-garage. Of course my dumb luck doesn't allow me to break-down 'getting' to work, it waits with twisted glee until I am ready to go home. It's a 20 mile journey and I probably made 3-4 miles of it before the cam-belt decided to cal it a day. I knew he was having problems and took hi into the garage the day before last. Good fellas my mechanics - their advice however was to keep an eye on it between then and the due service they were going to give it this next week. Land Rovers!! - everyone should have one! My cousin helped me out of the jam I got stuck in and towed me the rest of the way in his spanking Defender. (Makes you proud to be British! I can hear the lions roaring and Churchill's oratory somewhere about 'never being defeated') Anyway, we managed to get it to the deserted garage and the saga continues first thing tomorrow morning when I see if it's salvageable. Fingers crossed folks. Anyone wanting to make donations to a Land Rover of my own are encouraged to PayPal me! All contributions will be rewarded with a smiley-face email! ;) Wowza! More to blog about.... The Party conferences of U.K. politics began this week with one of the big three, the Liberal Democrats and some of the smaller 'cults' like the SNP (Scottish National Party). It was Blackpool for the LibDems. Next weeks seaside resort to host the Labour party will be Brighton. You can expect the Tories down in Bournemouth the week after. Who says my blogs aren't a learning experience? Expect more trivial insights into Blighty's ways next time....