It's the end of the world...

... As we know it. And I feel fine.

Where I live is the original setting for H G Wells The War of the Worlds. I have always resisted the temptation to blip this statue in the town centre, created as a homage to our most famous local author. But today the sun was shining and I thought why not?

And this Thing I saw! How can I describe it? A monstrous tripod, higher than many houses, striding over the young pine trees, and smashing them aside in its career; a walking engine of glittering metal, striding now across the heather; articulate ropes of steel dangling from it, and the clattering tumult of its passage mingling with the riot of the thunder. A flash, and it came out vividly, heeling over one way with two feet in the air, to vanish and reappear almost instantly as it seemed, with the next flash, a hundred yards nearer.

In terms of battles with alien technology I had my own private victory today. In one of my earlier blips I photographed a 50 pence piece that had got stuck in our washing machine and had cost us seventy pounds to get someone else to repair. Today when the washing machine was exhibiting the same symptoms, I opened it up and got rid of the offending blockage, this time a 10p piece and some paper.

Just goes to show you can win sometimes if you put your mind to it.