Now and again, I look at a blank screen through a pair of absolutely blank eyes.

It’s like a brain wipe-out. I just can’t think of anything to say. But never fear, all is not lost. I always have a list of odds and ends.

Little snippets of subjects that, on their own, would be too short. But, if I put a few together, I can clear my list and get away with column-writing for another week.

So first off, digging peat. If the Editor reads my weekly epic tales, he may be interested to know that I have at least two readers.

Last week I told of the joys of peat digging. Now, an early caller from across the Onchan valley was Adrian Earnshaw.

A one-time fellow peat cutter, he kindly reminded me that I had forgotten to mention one of the all-time pleasures of our craft. The midges. Thank you, Adrian, I’m still scratching.

About an hour later, I negotiated the revolving door up at Nobles, and literally walked straight into someone that I hadn’t seen for years.

’Hey boy’, he said. ’I see we’re cutting peat, this week.’

Now that in itself bucked me up. We hadn’t seen each other for years and, despite the two sticks and a stoop, he had recognised me.

Now quite often I bump into someone who I know that I know, but for the life of me, I can’t remember who they are.

This time, there was absolutely no difficulty in recognising the second column reader, Roy Kneen.

A good Peel Man, long since retired and, when last heard of, was living in Ramsey.

I’m happy to report that apart from the grey beard, he has not changed one bit.

Have you seen the new £5 coins? I quite like them, but they don’t look as though they’re worth a fiver. They remind me of those gold-covered chocolate coins that we used to get at Christmas to hang on the tree.

Anyway, I decided to conduct a survey into what people think about them. Not a lot, was the loud reply.

I had decided that I would join the queue at the Isle of Man Bank, and withdraw my cash in Manx £5 coins.

From now on I was going to use real money and see what reaction I got from the shopkeepers.

Very little, was the answer. Responses varied between total indifference, and so what?

I shall persevere for another month, and report back.

The next item on my list of subjects is crime.

Now I have just had this brilliant idea. The way that I see things is that not only are more crimes being committed, the clear-up rate seems to be going the other way. It’s becoming more and more difficult to bring the baddies to justice. Well this idea of mine is a guaranteed winner.

It won’t be a quick fix, and it wouldn’t be popular with everyone in the data protection business.

But if the idea became law today, in 100 years, the clear up numbers of all committed crimes could reach almost 100%.

Just think about it. All that money that the police would save on crime detection, could be spent on other things such as illegal parking on disabled spaces, and using the phone when you are driving.

The scheme would be relatively inexpensive to set up, and it would take close to one hundred years to be completely operational, but the results would be spectacular.

If from day one, every child in the world who was born had their DNA put onto a database, every robbery, every murder, every terrorist attack, every assault committed anywhere in the world, could be solved at the click of a keyboard. Just like that.

And last but not least, we were in Peel the other day, and we met this couple that we know, with their dog. It was one of those dogs with long hair that covers its face.

And yes, it really does happen. When I patted the dog’s tail, I really had been talking to the wrong end.