I was driving Clouseau to the vet for a check-up yesterday when we came across a bewildering sight, says Atticus. A mile up a well-known country lane shortcut for local light vehicles, in front of a line of traffic a lorry was being lifted from the narrow road by a crane, high into the sky into a field...

Another sat-nav incident, literally two days after Mrs Miniver’s! How such a large vehicle had made it that far up the narrow hedge-lined lane I can only guess and it’s a testament to the driver’s abilities behind the wheel. What’s not a testament to his navigation abilities is the fact that he was there at all. Obviously a sat-nav casualty, forced for the last three days to sleep in his cab until help lumbered up the road to turn the lorry round and send him back to where he came from.

The day of the map and of actually knowing where you’re going is long over, just as making concrete plans to meet friends is too – consigned to history by the mobile “Sorry I’m running late...can I meet you in twenty” phone call/text message.

Clouseau and I filtered past with the other vehicles as the crane turned the lorry in the field, each driver turning his or her head to get a view of the mythical beast, the sat-nav-suckered lorry driver. Fortunately, this sighting may soon become a thing of the past according to a Times article.