I WAS shocked and disgusted to hear of Olympic diver Tom Daley’s recent announcement – what was ITV thinking commissioning a second series of the terrible reality show Splash?

Celebrity contestants on game shows are all the rage but it seems my letters requesting a celebrity version of 1980s’ trials bike series Kickstart are being ignored.

Just imagine the possibilities.

Daytime TV host Judy Finnegan tackling a muddy riverbank section. Les Dennis attempts a boulderstrewn stream. The Chuckle Brothers ride motorbike and sidecar over an up-turned tree – to me, to you.

I loved my Yamaha 175cc trial bike. I must have had, ooh, at least 45 minutes of fun riding it in the three years I owned it as a teenager. The rest of the time it was in bits while I waited for parts to arrive on the Colin Appleyard van that visited the auction mart every Friday. Although not comparable to the previously mentioned disappointment of finding that the last ten minutes of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade hadn’t recorded, it was still quite frustrating to be told by the man in the van that the much needed part was not in the back of said van.

Ho hum, another weekend playing on the Raleigh Grifter – which, interestingly, was actually heavier that the motorbike.

Jumping forward 20 years, we took the baby to see Father Christmas up at Sycamore Close extra care scheme at the weekend. We wanted a picture of her with Santa so we dumped her on his knee, not thinking that such contact has probably been banned long ago by the health and safety elves for fear of lawsuits and false claims of inappropriateness.

On the subject of Christmas, I was delighted to hear that the Coca-Cola truck was visiting towns in the region.

Nothing symbolises the birth of Christ more to me than a multi-national fizzy pop company parking a brightly painted HGV outside a supermarket.