There are many things annoying me of late – like when bus drivers stop their vehicles in the middle of the road, lean out of the window and have a chat about the weather.

Or when you can’t drive from one side of the town to the other without having to go through several completely pointless one-ways.

Or when millions is spent on building things that no one will ever look at or need. Or when you hold the door open for someone and they completely ignore you.

But the biggest gripe this week has to be the way we are slowly being told everything is off-limits. Only a month into the new year, I am already scared to touch anything in case I get the dreaded swine flu.

And if the virus isn’t real it’s coming at me through my computer screen. The price of everything is going up and up, and everything else is generally going down the pan.

I am constantly being told of another health related issue that may end up killing us all. Problem is – no one knows for sure if it actually exists.

On top of all that, the terrorist threat level is raised then lowered whenever ‘they’ feel like it.

Might as well stay at home.

Momentous events across the Middle East and in particular in Egypt this week, but it seems some things haven’t changed when it comes to our attitude.

Whilst we are all well aware that this is a time when we should keep our noses out of things, it seems we can’t.

You kind of got the feeling that despite what we say in public, in private our government will be hoping that Mr Mubarak stays for another 30 years.

Western governments have done this for many years.

And if and when he does get replaced, we would very much like someone else who does exactly what we say for the right price.

But what is unfolding before our very eyes is something different. This is not a religious protest although every so often we are having the religious ‘threat’ rammed down our throats.

This is a protest by people who simply want to be free from tyranny and dictatorship.

Pity the same rhetoric wasn’t applied to many of the other ‘scary’ dictators we have seen over the years.