This fine New Year’s morning I decided to walk to the local village petrol station store to purchase a newspaper. I picked up my copy from the outside display cabinet and headed inside to pay only to be stopped in my tracks by an employee who came out to tell me that the store didn’t open until 10am; it was then 9.50am.

Of course, she could have taken the money from me (I had the exact change) and could have scanned another copy at her leisure, to keep the accounts tidy, once 10am had arrived. Clearly, that would have been too much trouble for her and so I put the paper back and off I walked to the village newsagents about a half mile away to try again. Here it was a different story because the newsagents, run by an Asian family, had been open since 5am and the cheerful lad behind the counter was more than willing to serve yet another customer.

Quite a good synopsis of the modern world, I felt.

Happy New Year!