........and it`s raining. And I wake up this morning to be confronted by two things hitting the airwaves which make me wonder why I bother to watch the `news` of the day.

First, there`s a lot of stuff about the BAFTA awards, the GRAMMY awards and, very soon I suspect, the OSCARS (unless they`ve already been on and somehow I missed it.) Now, I try but I just cannot get interested (let alone excited) about events like this which are self-serving, self-congratulatory, cringingly awful excuses for certain `professions` to lavish large sums of money on themselves. If we are going to have award `ceremonies` then let`s have them for other walks of life which arguably contribute much more to our daily lives than this lot.

How about a Bricklayer of the Year ceremony....or a Plumber Award event? Lifetime achievement award goes to Dave Tatton, Plumber and joint-wiper extraordinaire of Rainham in Kent. Most Promising Newcomer award for bricklaying goes to Shane Richards of Ealing for the recessed pointing he produced to the highest standard achievable using only a 4" trowel.

I think what really hurt this morning was the sceptre of The Police making a come-back at the Grammy awards thingy.....I really had hoped we had seen and heard the last of them, especially following Mr.Sumner`s instantly forgettable attempt to go `classic` with his recent whining`album.`

To add to the Monday blues, I was also berated about the possibility that I`m not quite as `green` as perhaps I might be. Now, I do recycle stuff, put out cardboard, newspapers, tins, etc. for the `refuse operatives` to take away; I also take bottles and other stuff to the recycling bins and I thought I was doing my bit to save the planet.

Not so, it seems. Some worthy comes on tv this morning and smugly goes on about his carbon footprint and how he has converted his house so it`s carbon neutral, how he rides his bike everywhere, uses long life light bulbs, installs solar panels, turns down his heating by two degrees and all the other things that these people do to make them feel better than the rest of us. Trouble is, they are so smug and `superior` about it that it quite turns me off doing anything at all. If and when China, India and especially America start to take global warming seriously and take the drastic action they should, then at that point I might have a change of heart. In the meantime, Mr. Smug and his colleagues should just lay off.

Well, it is Monday morning.