The National Manhole Cover Society of Great Britain meets today at it's annual get-together of fun and jollity. Members are encouraged to wear their conference badges with pride and decorum, and to spread the word about their interest far and wide.
What, you may ask, am I doing writing about this event?
Well, (pun intended) I have recently been fascinated by this often mis-understood society, whose main aim in life is to preserve and record the many different designs of cover in our capital city, going back to the first cover installed in 1848 outside Kings Cross.
Also, I've decided to send in some designs for new covers, which have the potential to entertain, enlighten and educate the millions of pedestrians and tourists. The reason behind my new hobby is to create a national network of
postcoded drain covers, which could prevent anyone from ever getting lost again.
How?
By persuading the foundries that create them to stamp the nearest Postcode prominently somewhere within each design, thereby creating a myriad of markers for the lost and confused.
So, by checking the nearest manhole cover and cross-referencing the postcode against the soon-to-be-nationally-distributed map, pedestrians, cyclists and ramblers will always know exactly where they are.
It's just the kind of thing every effluent nation should have.
Sergei