WELL, 2010 ended on a high note. Yes, it was high-pitched scream from all the folks who’d been stuck in snow, or unfortunate enough to be without water through the holidays and beyond.

Water is something we truly take for granted; we turn on the tap and out it flows.

No walking down to the river with a bucket for us. The people in Northern Ireland seem to have had a bad time of it, some have even been cooking with melted snow.

Well, that’s one use for the stuff.

Thinking about how we take services such as water for granted reminded me of the time I spent in Iran.

Yes, six weeks on the Persian Golf, 40 degrees in the shade.

The washing dried as you pegged it out and even the flies didn‘t move at noon.

Water was delivered in a rusty old tanker. There was no regular time, you just got a water delivery if you were lucky.

The water was stored in a tank in the garden (I use the term loosely), of the villa I shared.

The contents of the tank would have interested any biologist – it was teeming with life.

Since then I’m always reminded what a privilege it is to drink Adam’s ale straight from the tap.

Mind you it’s not just water we can take for granted. A TV advert caught my eye recently, it has a catchy jingle about pushing little buttons and of course that‘s what I’m doing right now on my keyboard.

Like most people I push buttons or flick switches and expect instant results.

So many things in our world work this way – all you need is a couple of digits and on come lights, radio, TV and mobile phone.

You can send messages flying through cyberspace the same way – though for now we can’t send anything more solid than radio waves ... but give it time.

What I’m looking forward to is a Star Trek-style transporter.

No more hold ups on the M6 because of snow, we just step in and fly through space ourselves.

What a way to travel that would be.