Thanks to Mr Windsor Waitrose…

Some years ago, after Janet had sampled a few Bombay Sapphire gin tasters in the Windsor branch of Waitrose, her host – a rather dapper gentleman, in the true meaning of the word - said that she reminded him of Britain’s best selling poet Pam Ayres. Janet was slightly taken aback, still hoping at that time for a favourable comparison to Madonna, or other glamour girl. Pam Ayres is somewhat her senior. Seeing Janet’s slight surprise, her host stressed that he’d meant the comparison as a compliment. Now Janet thinks of him as one of the inspirations for her “Water Poems” (see below).

At Thames Gateway

A tribute from contemporary Estuary England to  S T Coleridge’s poem “Kubla Khan”, as submitted to the Thames Gateway Bridge Public Inquiry by Janet in 2005

At Thames Gateway did Rogers Khan*
A stately pleasure-dome decree,
Where Tamesis, sacred river, ran
Through transport corridor of man,
Down to Southend-on-Sea.

Then Government did command
A conference in London’s Dockland,
And midst this Rogers heard from far
Across the river voices prophesising war !
A montage of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves….
Government had failed to measure
Environmental impacts on the weather !

A planner and developer
In a vision once I saw,
With a traffic engineer,
And on his model he displayed
Complex forecasts overlaid.
What future held these three
For the Gateway Bridge Inquiry ?
At which junction, I awoke
And replied : The SEA, The SEA**

*Lord Rogers of Riverside  **Strategic Environmental Assessment

Michael Foster MP

Michael Foster
Came to Worcester
And trod in a puddle of rain
He trod in a puddle
Right up to his middle
And never was seen again

Based on the nursery rhyme Dr Foster went to Gloucester (which also has problems with flooding !) Michael Foster has been the “New Labour” MP for Worcester since 1997