This weekend behemoth produce will be rolled out at the UK National Giant Vegetables Championships. I’m not sure anything from my garden could be a contender. But if they ever hold a National Mini Veg Competition I could put my carrots forward.

Why people choose to grow giant veg is a bit of a mystery to me, but I guess that’s how supermarket worshippers feel about those of us putting in months of effort to grow a tenner’s worth of veggies for ourselves.

This programme about the pursuit to be crowned Giant Veg King (you’ll notice a distinct lack of women growers - obviously too busy running the world) gives a brilliant insight into the awesome lengths these gardeners will go to. I can’t decide which of them is my favourite, they’re all so fantastic.

There’s nowt so queer as folk.

They do the usual row after row of strawberries as well as the less usual…

…marrows, runner beans, and sweetcorn.

There’s oodles of other stuff too, including little squashes and giant pumpkins…

It’s called Malt Kiln Farm Shop in Stretton-under-Fosse near Rugby and I wrote about it here, and here, and here. (I’m quite a fan.)

Unusual for me to be traditional, but I had most fun picking the raspberries. There’s something very satisfying about finding a really juicy one hidden away and gathering a punnet of different shades of pink. The bugs love them too…

This story has done the rounds in the “gutter press”, but it’s also appeared in the Guardian, the Indie and the New Statesman, and Radio 4 asked Jilly Cooper of all people to share her opinions on the Today programme.

Someone has started up a Twitter account as @CatBinLady and already has 9,000 followers, while elsewhere in the Twittersphere people are tweeting as Lola the cat. And the footage is still top of the YouTube chart.

And now come a million games and videos, capitalising on the “cat in bin” saga. Starting with the Tabby Trash game above, here’s a round-up of the spin-offs so far…

The Ruskie spin-off…

The cat-on-a-keyboard spin-off…

The Eurotrash dance spin-off…

The dwarf spin-off…

The Catzilla spin-off…

And the sick but soulful kitty sniper spin-off…

The most farcical thing I’ve seen so far though, was the footage of the media scrum in Coventry, when Sky News and ITV chased the woman and her elderly mother down the street, demanding answers. Journalism at its finest. My favourite part is when the reporter yells “Mary! Perhaps if you tell us why you did it, everyone would leave you alone”. Yaaaaaarrr, riiiiiiiiight!

…taking one on a test drive did. I am sold.

The Wisper I trialled works just like an ordinary bicycle - until you turn the power on.

I tend to take short, flat journeys, so a normal bike is ideal most of the time. But when I’m cycling to a meeting and I’m late (I’m always late) and there’s a hill between me and my destination, I don’t want to look like I’m in need of medical attention by the time I arrive. An electric bike takes care of that.

Similarly, while I’m a 10/15 minute ride from work, loads of my colleagues are commuting to Coventry from Rugby, Nuneaton, Leamington, Birmingham, etc. Those distances are fine for a seasoned cyclist clad in Lycra, but they become leisurely rides in work wear with an electric bike.

There’s no need to look round for car parks, no parking charges, no costly MOTs, no road tax and no petrol (and only 8 pence for a full charge).

These babies are the future.

Thirty three miners in Chile are stuck more than 2,000ft beneath the ground at the San Jose gold and copper mine near Copiapo.

The miners have been stuck for 17 days but yesterday managed to write a note and send it up through a small hole drilled by the rescue team.

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The emergency services have warned it could take four months to rescue the 33 men who will be sent food and water in small supplies in the meantime.

The news provoked an emotional response from friends and family who may not see their loved ones before Christmas.

An incredible story. And yet, the cat in the bin saga rumbles on. (Sigh)

I’ve been writing today about a local family who set up CCTV cameras on their house after a spate of burglaries in the area. But one of the cameras has captured a truly bizarre occurrence this weekend.

The couple reviewed the footage after hearing their cat, Lola, mewing and finding her in their wheelie bin. They expected to see drunken louts playing a trick on the moggy, but instead saw a woman stop to stroke the cat before dumping it in the bin and shutting the lid.

On first viewing, I was as gobsmacked by the curious behaviour as everyone else has been. But perhaps what has been more interesting is the reaction of people - local and far flung - and the comments they’ve left on Facebook, Twitter and our own website.

I’ve seen the words “disgusted” and “despicable” over and over, and there’s a sense of genuine anger from people who’ve seen the film.

We’ve had a series of animal cruelty stories in the newspaper this year, with court cases following someone who killed a puppy after swinging it by its leg, someone who ripped off the head of a goose, and two brothers who beat four geese to death with a wooden plank.

Each case has understandably drawn scorn from readers, but none has upset members of the public as much (or received as much attention) as the curious case of the cat in the bin.

Is that because this one was caught on camera, allowing the reader to see the act of cruelty for themselves, or is it because this one involved a middle-aged woman as the perpetrator?

The Guardian’s bike blog took a look at the Copenhagen Wheel yesterday. Bike blogger Adam Vaughan panned the idea but after falling in love with electric bikes this week I’d like to think it has potential. He also flagged up the most obvious problem - and the one that puts me off straight away - this design just screams “steal me”! This bike wouldn’t last a week in our dodgy old shed in Cov before getting nicked.

I had a good giggle reading through research by the Chewing Gum Action Group (yes, they really do exist) into the different personalities of gum droppers. They split them into four groups and it reads a bit like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

Thre are: The Show Offs (who make a game out of kicking their gum way), The Careless (who don’t care about littering), The Guilty (who know littering is wrong but find ways to justify it) and The Revolted (who want to get rid of old gum as quickly as they can).

If you recognise yourself amongst these categories you might want to change your ways. If you’re caught littering with gum in Coventry you’ll be fined £80 - and will probably die of embarrassment (unless you’re one of The Careless). We’ll be checking back with them to find out whether the chewing gum clamp-down has the desired effect or if Coventry is destined to be clad in gum forever more.

We wave our fists as they pass us by on pavements, scoff as they saunter past stopped cars at red lights and tut at the ones who don’t bother to wear helmets - don’t they know they are just asking for an accident?

I’m not sure when pedal power became so roundly hated but the last few weeks have brought an undeniable deluge of ranting and raving about two-wheeled travel, and this renewed road rage seems to have been sparked by a story about Channel 4 anchorman Jon Snow, who was caught out in a Daily Mail ‘sting’, supposedly ignoring traffic lights and cycling on pavements.

The Mail reporter, hot on Snow’s heels, followed his three-mile journey home from work, noting a dozen flagrant floutings of the Highway Code before disgracing the housewives’ favourite by publicly revealing his cycling sins. (The shame!)

Snow’s misdemeanours are deemed newsworthy because when he was made president of the Cyclists’ Touring Club three years ago he said: “In particular I want to play a part in making cycling safer.”

Well, let’s admit it, there’s nothing sweeter than seeing a figurehead caught out, and I can’t defend the man for talking on his phone while cycling (tsk).

But anyone who ever uses Britain’s roads must realise cyclists are stuck at the bottom of the food chain.

We’re considered a nuisance to traffic (rather than being part of traffic) and we’re a nuisance to pedestrians too. We’re not wanted on the road and we’re not wanted on the pavement - and our own designated territories, the sacred cycle lanes, are few and far between.

So must cyclists really be repentant when making the most of the half-way house they’re stuck in?

No, according to Jon Snow, who took a leaf out of Edith Piaf’s book, saying: “I regret nothing beyond the reality that in common with America and many other countries we need a serious national cycling strategy and REAL provision for cycle use.”

London’s first roadside bicycle repair scheme was launched today and I’d like to think it’s a little something like this…

SE1-based Druid Cycles has a new team of trained mechanics with bike maintenance kits making their way round the capital - on bikes, naturally - repairing punctures and fixing skewiff brakes.

I can already hear the sneers from seasoned cyclists asking, “why can’t people fix their own punctures?” But bike maintenance was one of the few dark clouds that hung over cycling for me before I got my bike and while I’m just about confident fixing a puncture at home, I’m still more likely to just walk my bike home if I get lumbered with a problem while out and about. So if these guys encourage more people to give cycling a go, I think they’re doing a top job.

“Wherever bicycles are broken or menaced by international communism, bicycle repairman is ready!”