Thanks for that Datsy, Janet and Jenny.

Datsy, the self watering ball you mentioned seems similar from your description to the self-watering sphere Jenny located on her trawl through the web. Problem that her's were on an American site and while I have bought stuff direct from the USA in the past it can be something of a lottery with HM Customs & Excise what you end up paying. I'm also a bit iffy about buying from a small bit operator abroad for all the obvious reasons.

Janet your "neighbour" solution is nice and simple but where I live most of my immediate neighbours are often empty holiday homes or very, very old widows who would be happy to help but are mostly too frail to cope with the task of getting into my house.

Jenny, the drip bag from Leominster looks dead simple and is worth a try. The Oasis dripper is from the USA and so, for me that is ruled out and, finally, the home-made pop bottle device, as much as I like the idea of self-help, is a bit on the small side.

So that leaves the dripper so far and my main concern about that concept is the fact that my bougainvillea likes, so I am told, a drenching and then a period of gradual drying out before another drenching.

It would seem I need some sort of soil sensor that tells my reservoir that it is time for a large shot of food and drink when the time is right. I'm sure someone must have come up with that bit of kit by now. As I said in my first post I did find something along those lines for sale but in the States.

If anyone has any more UK based ideas to solve my problem I would very much continue to welcome some help!