I try to pop out for a quiet lunch and THIS happens...

There's an Olympic torch somewhere in the second photo. Can you find it?

Eternal Flame

The Olympic torch has been touring the UK for what seems like the last couple of billion years, and tomorrow it's Hastings' turn to have it.

In fact it's going to be chasing me around the South East of England. In the morning it will be passing through the Pantiles in Tunbridge Wells, about thirty yards away from where I work.

I'll be ready for it this time - just before the Jubilee we had a Royal visit by the Count and Countess of Wessex (or, as they're known around here, Prince Edward and the barmaid from the pub in Brenchley) and I never noticed as they turned up on the print day for two magazines I work on.

Then, in the evening, it will reach Hastings, where it will be relayed along the seafront, and after a few speeches by local dignitaries and a concert by Rizzle Kicks (no, me neither) it will be kept overnight on The Stade, the ancient fishing beach. Odds on, someone will try to nick the eternal flame and sell it on eBay.

This has certainly been a barbeque summer. Barbeques attract rain clouds in England in the same way trailer parks attract tornadoes in the US, and it's been raining non-stop since Easter.

A few guest stars in today's cartoon. Can you spot Mike Pike and Alonzo P Thurgermeyer in the crowd? Millie and Gemma (in the test versions I drew as a pitch for the Daily Mirror) are also there - Millie's in the pink shirt, and Gemma's to her right.

Escalation

This is the end of this sequence, but not the end of this theme. Smudge's competitiveness will resurface from time to time.

Here we see Smudge's wall in context for the first time. It's a garden wall separating Smith and Jones' post war dwelling from the Victorian semis on the other side of the divide - not unlike the view outside my own living room to be honest, except in my case there's a small stream and a thicket of trees between my house and the garden opposite.

The church is a transplant from Tunbridge Wells. It's St Mark's C of E Church in Broadwater Down - I picked it because it has a very tall steeple. The churches in Hastings tend to be much older and stumpier, with low towers rather than steeples, and that would have ruined the joke.

The final think to note today is that if subscription rates keep rising at the rate they have been for the past couple of weeks both Snow Sez and Smith will probably break the 400 subscriber barrier on GoComics. As of now (12.20am) we're both at 396 subscribers... Not that I'm counting of course.