A few nights ago I went out for a drink near the castle. It was raining and already dark. As I pushed my chair down the soaking streets I quickly realised the big drawback to self-propelling on dark wet nights – mysteriously mucky hands.

I’m used to getting a bit messy from the wheels of my chair – in daylight I keep a close eye on what I’m rolling over, but of course this is much trickier at night. I eventually realised the slimy goo my hands were covered with was ‘snail’, mainly because on closer inspection I noticed there were a lot more of them on the pavement than usual.

Fortunately the pair of cycling gloves I’d ordered arrived this morning and I hope these’ll help keep my hands free of squashed molluscs and other gunk. But I’ll still going to keep a close eye out for the snails.

I wonder if you can get some sort of snail-warning system like the ones you get to warn you about speed cameras?