One of the hardest things to do these days, in the UK, is to buy a newspaper (!) Go into any newsagents and the idiot in front of you in the queue is bound to be fiddling about with f**ing lottery tickets! And each transaction seems to take hours!! Is that because lottery players are extra-specially thick or the lottery is so complicated it takes an inordinate amount of time to either buy or to check a ticket?

Some people also seem to find it hard to buy a bus ticket. These days, every time I go into town, my heart sinks when I see a big queue at the next bus stop - because I know that each would-be passenger is going to need to arrange to pay his/her fare via banker's draft, negotiate an international peace treaty, translate the collected works of Aristotle from the original ancient Greek into Finnish and write a thesis on quantum indeterminacy. Meanwhile, I'm on the top deck screaming silently to myself: "Just get on the f***ing bus!!!!"

Is it just me?