Around three years ago I was having trouble with a builder who was due to fix a couple of cisterns (you may remember, the one who instead of fixing the cisterns, painted my already newly-painted 'Contemporary' dining room wall and my equally neutral, newly-painted kitchen, bright yellow, in my absence and without my say-so).

For some reason I was never able to establish, he also delivered two new toilets (minus seats and lids) to my front door. They remained in my porch for some days, before I removed them while cleaning, onto my drive in the vain hope that he'd collect them.

They were too heavy for me to be able to lift into my car, so there they stayed. Eventually I filled them with compost and planted Spring bulbs, Summer flowering climbers and Fuschias whose colourful blooms last until the first frosts. As well as being easy to keep moist thanks to the reservoir in the u-bend, they make a cheery display and a great talking point when visitors see them for the first time. The white ceramic also works as a useful marker when I'm reversing into the drive after dark!

My daughters and some colleagues are embarrassed by them but as an ex-Loo of the Year Awards judge, I find them rather appropriate and I'm proud of them, so I'm happy to take any stick I'm given by those who think I'm daft.

It was with much delight that I opened up a press release from Hull-based Ideal Standard's press relations guru Corey Kitchener today, with pictures showing how men's urinals have been turned into art for the new Hull Capital of Culture exhibition - a collaboration between Ideal Standard, which owns the famous Armitage Shanks brand; and the Hull School of Art and Design.

Having looked at how some of the urinals have been decorated, I can see I'm in good company in making use of superfluous sanitaryware and I'm wondering whether there would be any call for a permanent exhibition... a Salvador Dali-esque village of sanitaryware - painted, decorated and placed exactly where you wouldn't expect to find it...

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Yours,

Jan Hobbs