Back In The Summer Of '76

Yes folks a week of sunshine and temperatures into the upper 20's C and the papers are already likening this summer to the "great drought" of 1976.

It may surprise many of you to hear that I was not simply "a twinkle in me Dad's eye" back then, but actually a lithe youth with a 26 inch waist as I recall.

We went on holiday to Scarborough that year, and I remember there being loads of ladybirds about. I don't mean a few more than normal either, I mean millions of them, everywhere. Everywhere you went you were ankle deep in dead ladybirds.

Hosepipe bans were in place, and your Mum had to sneak out into the garden, face fully blackened up, at 1am to water the plants.

Well, we could be in for a repeat of 1976 this year they reckon. So get those standpipes ready.