The aliens were creatures with four wheels – the dimensions of an oversize rubbish bin – the male of the species sporting a dark grey veneer and the female a rather fetching sexy green or was it the other way round? I couldn't tell. My first guess was that they were mutant daleks recently leaked from the BBC dangerous alien compound that we presumably now have in our city since the welsh chapter of Auntie got the contract to tart up our favourite Saturday tea time TV programme. But closer inspection revealed the absence of a killer whisk or rubber sucker that kept us pinned behind the sofa in days gone by. Of course they were neither dalek nor any other form of alien intelligence but a sign of our changing times – the wheelie bin.

Now that they have finally made it into North Cardiff they have quickly become part of our lives and though I am aware that they present some difficulties for those with steps and steep slopes and those less agile than others they seem to have solved the problem of the bloke up the road's dog ripping the black bag open in search of a second hand snack and cleaned the place up a bit. And if their green cousins present us with extra opportunities for recycling to help out this planet of ours then they can't be too unwelcome visitors.

Another sign of this changing world is that these days when I get home from the pub I don't smell like Dot Cotton's ashtray but pretty much like when I left the house. You may say that is not very nice at all but at least I'm to blame for it and not someone else. As a committed non smoker I have to admit to seeing this as an excellent development and one I have enjoyed regularly over the last few months. I just hope the health burden of my lungs isn't transferred to my liver. I drove past a pub the other day in the pouring rain which appeared to have a steam train parked outside. I didn't get this impression from an actual engine but from the great plumes of smoke which would have done Thomas the Tank or our own little Ivor proud. As it turned out it was a beer garden of smokers (the new collective noun I believe) gathered for a communal fag. They eyed me suspiciously as I looked on in bemusement wondering what it was about this habit that propels its adherents to such lengths to indulge in their habit. Surely standing around in the wet can't do any good for your chest.

And that I guess explains why the arguments over the smoking ban seem to polarise us so much. One half can't identify what it is that draws the other half to stand in the rain inhaling noxious fumes who themselves have forgotten how uncomfortable those fumes make the other half feel. . But the beer garden full of smokers seems something that is here to stay unless of course they all give up and yet another change to our social fabric is introduced.

And things are changing fast not only do we have a new prime minister, another new shopping centre about to emerge in town, a British Wimbledon champion (if you can count mixed doubles), a more than outside chance that Cardiff City will get a new stadium, an only slightly slimmer chance that Welsh rugby will start a season without a crisis and a new government in the assembly .

Well maybe or maybe not. At the time of writing Rhodri and co are still arguing whether a red and green or rainbow coalition will govern us. If you can call blue, yellow and green a rainbow which one has to reject purely on the clash of colours. But maybe the arguments run deeper than that. By the time you read this maybe the dust will have settled and I'll be coming to terms with yet another change. Maybe even the council's latest proposals for school reorganisation will be greeted with a loud Amen and a round of applause – Nah some things will never change.

Tony Millin is the author of 'Freeloading Cymru' available from all good bookshops or online at www.gomer.co.uk or www.freeloadingcymru.com