EITHER he was an abandoned and dejected bridegroom standing outside the Register Office in New Road, or he was lost.

It turned out he was the latter. He was over 80, having driven from Bath, (emphasising the non-existent letter R, as some people tend to do) leaving home at 5.30am, arriving in Oxford before 8am and had been searching for the Churchill Hospital ever since. My watch showed it was just after 10.

“I should have been there for treatment an hour ago. Everyone tells me I’m on the wrong side of the city. I seem to have been on every side at least twice. My map doesn’t help,” he said.

I could see why – it was ancient. All that was missing were the words ‘Here be dragons’ written across Christ Church Meadow. What’s more there was no indication which roads were traffic free, one-way or closed.

I began to explain the best route – turn right, then left, through lights, turn left again – but stopped when his eyes started to glaze. There seemed no option but to hop into his car parked in Tidmarsh Lane, guide him over and into St Clement’s before finally pointing him towards the Churchill.

Before we parted I suggested the best route from the city and homewards to Bath (no non-existent R from me). He made notes on the back of the useless map.

This story is not intended to highlight what a selfless Good Samaritan I am but to highlight not for the first time what a difficult place our roadworks-infected city can be to navigate, especially for strangers.

On the other hand I suppose it deters the undesirables. Oops!

SATURDAY was best forgotten. Two 10-year-old grandsons lost their football games in Spalding and Matlock respectively, while my life-long ‘addiction’, Huddersfield Town, chose that day to be humiliated by Wolverhampton Wanderers.

To round off, England... Well, we all know what happened at Twickenham.

Two female friends, majestically and triumphantly sipping coffee in our favourite Covered Market cafe, declared there was no longer reason for their erstwhile stressed and engrossed husbands to watch the ‘foreign teams’, including Scotland, Ireland and Wales, that were still involved. Soaps could resume their priority viewing spot.

Discussion was not invited.

FINALLY last Friday’s Cabbages & Kings was a repeat of the previous week’s stories.

A mistake, and the fault lay with one person – me.

I attached the old copy to a new email and for once failed to double check. My apologies to our readers especially those who phoned to ask what we were up to. I promise to do better in future.