I’d like to tell you all about the brilliance of Arms.

Not the sort of arms that lift boxes, open jars, tenderly hold children or in my case flap about haphazardly. I’m referring to a graffiti artist called Arms who’s having a battle of words with some building contractors using a large grey hoarding near the castle.

It’s a saga that’s causing much amusement and anticipation. Let me explain.

A few days ago Leftwing Idiot pointed out some scrawled writing on the hoarding outside a new development of luxury flats. It read:

‘By the time you read this I will be gone.’

The words were written in white spray paint and followed by the tag, ‘ARMS’. It stood out because of its unusual and abstract tone. However, it soon vanished – painted over by the building contactors working on the flats.

A few days later another message from ARMS appeared:

‘I’m only just getting started…’

And once again it was quickly covered over with grey paint.

It took a day or so, but ARMS bounced back with:

‘The more you tell me not to do something the more I am going to do it.’

This filled me with glee. It’s a sentiment I can really relate to because my tics often take a similar approach: the more I try and stop them, the more they come out.

When I passed the hording the other day, I saw it’d been painted over again. I was excited to see what ARMS would come back with next. I even texted Leftwing Idiot to share the news.

And true to form, ARMS didn’t disappoint. Soon another scrawled message appeared. This time it said:

‘Now you see it…’

This made me laugh – the builders will soon have to paint over it, taking care of the ‘Now you don’t.’