TODAY marks the start of British Tomato Week. And to get us all to eat home grown toms instead of those allegedly tasteless orbs of rubbish from Spain and Italy, the British Tomato Growers’ Association has come up with a catchy little slogan to get us all beetling off to our nearest supermarket….

“Protected from the elements in their greenhouse and nurtured by our growers British Tomatoes are now bursting onto the shelves.” Do what? That’s really going to make folk head off with alacrity to do a supermarket tomato sweep isn’t it?

If the association wants us all to think local the first thing they need to invest in is someone who knows how to snappily sell their message….

And why ‘bursting on to the shelves’ when there are excellent farm shops and market stalls that piling up their own red mountains well before supermarkets jumped on the seasonal and local bandwagon.

But it set me thinking – when is a day, week or month never not a day, week or month of something or other? Did you know, for example, that this merry month of May is really International Drum Month, a period devoted to bringing together the ‘entire percussion industry in order to help grow the popularity of drumming and reach new drummers.’ Drum roll please!

And next Sunday is National Escargot Day when we’re all supposed to go out into our back gardens and search for the little blighters that have somehow got in among our home grown tomato plants because it will contribute to our understanding of how evolution works. Really?!

Last week was British Sandwich Week, apparently. Did you notice anything? Did it make your tuna mayo on brown seem a little different?

No, nor mine, either… a highlight of the week was being told how to make a ham and egg salad roll and apparently I could use either a white or brown roll and butter was optional. And I also needed some ham – oh, and a sliced hard-boiled egg. I would never have guessed, would you?

June 1 marks the start of National Microchip Month during which, if we haven’t already done so, we need to trot off the to vet and have the dog chipped. From 2016 it will be compulsory for all dogs to be micro-chipped, which in essence is the re-introduction of the dog licence in electronic format, so next month will no doubt have its uses.

And make sure you’ve got June 14 in the diary at all costs. For it’s World Juggling Day when – guess what – jugglers from all over the world get to show off their juggling skills! Who’d have thought it?

It’s a day when we’re being exhorted to learn how to juggle too – we’re told you should start by choosing a set of balls and then throw one from your left to right hand. Fancy! Then when you’ve mastered that you can add another ball into the mix. Whoah – steady on!

And the list goes on. We’ve got International Kissing Day coming up on July 6 where we can all go round snogging each other with impunity, there’s Two Left Feet Week from July 19 where you clearly have to have two left feet in order to take part, and on September 5 get ready for Bacon Day when, yes, you’ve guessed it, everyone tucks into bacon sarnies or BLTs and watches Kevin Bacon films.

Let’s face it, some of these awareness days, weeks or months are frankly an easy hit for PR types who use them as hooks to try and get their clients publicity exposure. And the dafter the day or week then so much the better.

But some of them have a more serious role and I’m all for that. This month alone has already seen or will see, among others, Action for Brain Injury Week, Dementia Awareness Week, International Day of Families, National Epilepsy Week, World Asthma Day and World No Hunger Day.

Maybe though we’ve reached saturation point for it seems that every day of the year is now devoted to something, which to my mind has the potential to dilute the message of whatever it is that people want to get across.

Instead then, perhaps we should have an International No Day Day when nobody does anything at all other than get on with their lives in the best way they can. I reckon that would be a winner….