Farm Diary

There will be winners and losers in 2008 just like any other year, and some scandal to keep us gossiping, government blunders to keep us complaining, and changeable weather to make us feel guilty '“ or not, as the case may be.

For the first time ever, I failed to find anything to interest me on the TV over Christmas.

We now have the inevitable satellite dish and, with hundreds of channels to choose from, it is now very difficult to watch any programme, without flicking through channels at every commercial break (and there are so many), hoping to find something better.

The net result is that an hour or so is spent watching bits of many programmes, before falling asleep, exhausted by the effort of it all. The one exception is the 'Discovery' channel, where some amazing pictures and facts put everything in perspective.

The documentary about the many meteor impacts on earth, which until quite recently was not believed to have happened, was fascinating.

It was even suggested that life on earth may have arrived with such an impact, or multiple impacts.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette January 2