Contrary to rumour, I don't hate cars. True, I do try to avoid them whenever possible and am increasingly hopeful that I'll never even have to learn to drive let alone actually buy one. But I do hate places that bend over backwards to accommodate cars at the expense of everyone and everything else. Brent Cross shopping centre isn't actually nearly as bad as it could be, being in London and thus included on a host of bus routes which sweep you through the car park and right up to the doors. But in recent years they've managed to develop a secondary retail park at the other side of the motorway, and - just my luck - it's the bit with the large bookshop. Buses stop here, too, but the quickest way to get from one side to the other is just to walk on the footpaths over the roads and then try not to get killed by impatient drivers trying to get in or out of the car parks. And looking down at the ugly grey track on which ugly metal boxes are speeding along emitting ugly fumes, it's hard not to wish that perhaps petrol prices could go up just a little bit more. (Although, of course, not in a way that's going to threaten my 90p buses.)

The headline of the Daily Telegraph today, incidentally, was 'You have the right to shoot dead a burglar'. *sighs*. Are Telegraph readers all armed now, too?

I keep on walking til the sun comes up.