YOU can't half tell the lucky people who have escaped from the weather horrors of the Leigh area during the past few holiday weeks.

Mahogany holidaymakers have been parading down Bradshawgate in their scanty gear showing off their summer tans in the rain all week.

No I'm not jealous - my time is yet to come - but I'm a recent convert to keeping covered following a programme I saw last week on a female plastic surgeon who was treating a skin cancer patient. Frightening.

Another giveaway was the photograph shops. You couldn't get near them for masses of sickened off homecomers waiting to grab their celluloid memories.

Why do people bother taking snapshots? All most seem to do is snatch a quick look through, stuff them back in the envelope, bore a few friends with pictures in bars that could have been taken anywhere, and then stick them away in an album never to be seen again.

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