Words: Regular, adj.

THAMES WATER recently wrote to me with some helpful hints on how I could increase their profits. First, I had to determine whether I was a low, moderate or high water-user, and one of the items in the inventory was use of a washing machine or dishwasher. Did my household utilise such devices only occasionally, regularly, or every day?

But regular is not the same as frequent. Sundays, Father Christmas and new millennia all arrive regularly, but using a washing machine once every thousand years hardly qualifies as moderate use. This falls into the same trap as those railway stations that offer a regular service to London. Once every alternate Thursday would be regular. A frequent but irregular service would be far better.