Progress IN AD 79, a lovely warm day on the Bay of Naples became considerably warmer. Having become bored with just sitting there for several thousand years, Mount Vesuvius decided to blow up. It livened up a dull afternoon, but, unfortunately killed tho

Progress

IN AD 79, a lovely warm day on the Bay of Naples became considerably warmer.

Having become bored with just sitting there for several thousand years, Mount Vesuvius decided to blow up. It livened up a dull afternoon, but, unfortunately killed thousands of people and buried the town of Pompeii in tonnes of ash. We had a look around the excavated but well-preserved ruins a couple of years ago and were struck by the similarity with Soham. Some areas are still being uncovered and it is these bits that reminded us of our home town. Where there is not a lot of foot traffic, weeds are growing up at the side and through the paving. Sound familiar? I thought it would. There are weeds and grasses poking through the paths all over town, even on the main thoroughfare. Outside the Griggs homestead there is even a clump of rubbish in the middle of the road near one of the traffic islands.

If the powers that be can't be bothered to keep these highly visible areas of the town presentable how can we expect others to take a pride in it? Nice as Andrézieux-Bouthéon may be, it seems that we might have more in common with the Romans of Pompeii.