A DRIVER signalled to me with a rather unpleasant hand gesture this week.

I thought it was totally uncalled for.

Yes, I was in the middle of the road, but I saw him coming and had moved over long before our vehicles met.

What he didn’t realise is that I was in the middle of the road through choice, rather than through a lack of concentration.

Most Dales roads are barely two car widths wide and are usually bendy – it’s exhausting trying to keep in the side at all times. I reckon it’s far better to straighten the road – of course, making sure you’re on the right side, the left – when you’re going round a corner.

Driving at a sensible speed down the middle allows you to have a really good nosy at what other people are up to.

Farmers check on the condition of their neighbour’s sheep or whether they’re keeping the thistles down, builders look at the standard of competitors’ work, everyone looks into people’s front rooms to see what they’re having for tea.

In our front room, you will probably see a boy being lectured about his use of the internet.

Far from listening to the radio because he couldn’t find anything interesting to do online, it’s now apparent the radio was being used to disguise the sound of furtive gaming. In-app purchases – three words (or is it two) that strike fear into any parent’s heart.

For the uninitiated, you get a game on a phone or tablet computer for free, but need to buy things to progress quickly through the game.

While you may progress quickly through the game, when you’re parents find out your free time will pass a lot slower when wi-fi privileges are removed.

There is still silence from the good folk of Finghall.

Let’s hope this week’s warm weather hasn’t increased fly numbers and prompted them to consider an assault on Constable Burton.