JUST as I thought everything was tickety-boo on the highway, those nasty old cones make an appearance again. Regular readers may recall me expressing my displeasure at being held up on my daily journey to work by the road works which went on for months on

JUST as I thought everything was tickety-boo on the highway, those nasty old cones make an appearance again.

Regular readers may recall me expressing my displeasure at being held up on my daily journey to work by the road works which went on for months on and around the Letchworth junction to the A1(M).

Restricting the approaches to one lane brought traffic misery and negotiating Letchworth Gate, which normally would take a minute to travel along, became a nightmare of stopping, starting and fuming.

At last, the cones were taken away and everything was wonderful again with no delays.

But the highways boys are suddenly back with a vengeance. They have laid out a real obstacle course with their cones this time while they carry out resurfacing work and traffic has ground to a near halt.

If I were a few years younger, I might be tempted to say hang the jams, ditch the car and take up rollerskating.

When I go out, I put on my shoes, trainers or sandals. Which ones I choose depends, of course, on where I am going and the season of the year.

For much of my adult life I have managed to get along with just two pairs of footwear at a time (the trainers were an addition to the shoe rack prompted by my kids saying some years back that I really must have some).

A new survey out this week into what we cram into our wardrobes these days makes for interesting reading.

Apparently, 72 per cent of women own between 20 and 40 pairs of shoes.

This does not surprise me. Since her first pair of booties as a baby, my daughter has had a thing about shoes.

Tell her that someone possesses 40 pairs of shoes and her response is likely to be: "Poor thing, how can she manage with so few?"

The survey also shows that British women have expanded an incredible 2.6 feet since 1976.

We are not talking obesity here but the increasing size of their wardrobes which have more than doubled over the past 30 years.

Some 13 per cent of women questioned said they used at least three wardrobes and 93 per cent at least two.

On the other hand, 89 per cent of men claimed they only needed one medium-sized wardrobe to hold all their clothes. But they must really cram them in because getting on for half admitted to having an average of around £3,000 worth of clothes.

One can see the reason for most surveys but some leave you asking the question: Why bother?

Such an example arrived this week. Rivetingly, it revealed that the majority of gardeners in the Midlands choose to spend their time tackling the weeds.

But those in the North West prefer to dig in the borders and put in bedding plants while we Southerners simply enjoy digging holes.

So now you know. I could go on, but I don't think I'll bother.