Mobberley and Friends of the Earth.

On the whole, I find sat navs very boring. I mean, they do their job but that usually involves getting you to the larger, faster roads and keeping you on them for as long as possible. Today, though, I had an unexpected treat when I trusted the sat nav to take me from a new client's site down to Knutsford and I ended up going along the type of country roads usually spurned by sat navs.

I wnet through some lovely little hamlets and villages although the only one whose name I caught was Mobberley. It was so quaint that I couldn't decide whether I'd enjoy living there or whether it would drive me nuts. The scenery was all so flat that it was like being in Cambridgeshire but it combination with the sunshine, it made me feel like running. This gate led out into some fields and wanted to just get out of the car and run.

All in all it was a blissful day with the only small dark cloud arising, surprisingly, from Friends of the Earth. A couple of weeks ago, on the spur of the moment, I'd done one of those charity texts to help with the bees and also with the promise of receiving a pack of bee-friendly seeds. I was told I'd get a 'phone call to obtain my address and also to tell me a bit more about the work they're doing to help the bees.

This evening, just as I got home from work, they rang me. My suspicions were aroused a little when the young lady on the 'phone said "we're being paid to call you" and, indeed, after some vague, unscientific nonsense about how the bees needed helping, I was told £12 a month would make a big difference: "Could you afford that, Mr Fenner, could you?" the excitable young lady asked me.

So, that's the end of me doing charity texts and, for the time being at least, the end of me donating money to Friends of the Earth. This whole business of pressuring people who already donate, presumably on the basis that if they're giving already, they can be persuaded to give more, seems really distasteful to me. Shame on you Friends of the Earth. I hope Jonathon Porritt had nothing to do with this; I always rather liked him.