THE flagged area in my back garden is looking exceedingly green just at the moment, and it’s odd as I never notice it until the sun shines.

Then the flags nag at me like a guilty conscience.

They say things like ‘look at us all covered in moss and you just don’t care at all’ which is just not true.

I do care – it’s just that cleaning them is such a palaver that really doesn’t seem all that worthwhile at the time.

To sort them out means I have to go into the shed, excavate my scrubbing machine from under all that stuff that I have stowed and stacked in there over the winter, and see if it still works.

If it doesn’t I shall probably have to change the plug, put all the stuff back in the shed, test it and then start with that monotonous and boring job of plying the thing up and down for at least an hour to make the flags look as splendid as they once did.

But when I come to think of it, though, those flags do look a little more attractive when they are green, and are perhaps best left as they are.

Yes, they do!

So now that’s settled, let’s go and have a look what’s on the telly.

The television really is the biggest excuse for stopping work’, all those good intentions and all those little jobs that need doing all go to the wall when there is something on that box in the corner that you simply cannot miss.

This very touchy subject came up the other evening while some friends and I were chatting and we all reluctantly agreed that when it comes to TV we are creatures of habit.

Our favourite soaps are a top of our must-see list and woe betide family members that want to differ.

Coronation Street, ta de dad de da, is one soap that I never miss and over the years since it first started – that was when I was the landlady in the Jubilee Hotel (that’s a posh name for pub) – I n have watched the main characters in the cast grow old along with me.

I have to admit that I am a devotee and even when abroad on holiday I still like to have my weekly fix of Corrie.

I find that in a peculiar sort of way it gives some continuity to my otherwise rather chaotic life.

I am now busily planning my ‘bucket’ trip, I’m off to the States, Africa, India and then – best of all – HOME.