Homebase's online store seems to have disappeared from the internet. Today when I tried to visit all I got was a blank page and an egg timer. I wonder if this is an improvement over the prior week where the site simply said "Sorry, homebase... is temporarily unavailable". Given DIY sales are in decline wouldn't you think they'd have made a better effort?

The Mountfield HP470 hand propelled petrol mower with its Briggs & Stratton engine is a dud. Since writing about its slow start last year things have only got worse. The wheels continue to fall off and the push bars have now buckled. At first I thought it might be trying to transform, chitty chitty bang bang style, into some kind of super, hovering mower. But no, the mower, which is under two years old and has been used less than twenty times, looks as if its been in service since the last century. I don't think it will make another cut and looks destined for the scrap heap.