EVERY now and again I hear someone say something or catch sight of something from the corner of my eye and think, sorry, but has the whole world gone completely mad?

Do you ever do that? Come on, you must have if you live in East Lancashire -- because as far as I'm concerned, at this moment in time, this place is Barmpot Central, Absolutely Bonkersville.

It's crazy, as Manuel in Fawlty Towers would say.

Things have gone truly berserk.

Now normally, I must admit, anything slightly strange will form only a fleeting doubt in my mind, a temporary thought of insanity, a glancing blow to life as I know it and normal service is usually swiftly resumed.

Only I'm afraid this week that service remains on the blink like one of my tellys and I have a lingering, skew-whiff view of the world.

I really do think things have gone completely and utterly off the rails.

We're teetering on the brink of devastation and, not to put too finer point on it, I think the end of the world is nigh.

Now I'm sorry to sound like the first member of some bizarre, black, death and destruction prophesying cult, but that is what I think. I really do.

I think we are being pulled towards Judgement Day at a rate of knots, like we're aboard an intergalactic spaceship being dragged towards a Death Star in Star Wars -- or facing Jez Quigley from Coronation Street on a dark night at the very least. What I am trying to say is that the signs are not good. This is all going to end in tears, mark my words.

Personally, I'm just waiting for a big bang.

You know, like the one some people believe started all this in the first place.

And that will be it. Whoosh! Crash! Bang! And the world will explode like a giant Catherine wheel.

Game over my friends and you've no lives left I'm afraid.

You think I'm joking? Well -- and I say this at the risk of sounding like Lloyd Grossman on Through the Keyhole I know -- let's look at the evidence.

Snow in August.

I rest my case.

What more is there to say?

I mean, sorry, I remember it snowed on my birthday in April once and everyone was absolutely gobsmacked, never mind one week before the summer Bank Holiday.

You've got to admit it's not looking good.

I feel like somebody somewhere is secretly beavering away on an ark and that heavy rain is about to fall, wiping all the bad people away.

Like those that have littered the planet with disposable cartons and packaging, those who attacked the Ozone layer with gallons of hairspray full of CFCs and, not least, those who have dubiously tinkered with nature to create tomatoes bigger than your average household pet and genetically modified sheep.

Because do you know what it all amounts to?

I'll tell you.

It amounts to this current topsy-turvy state of affairs, complete with winter in the middle of summer, thank you very much.

And where will it all end? I've told you, with a big bang.

If not, I'm obviously the one who's completely mad eh?