Frank Mitchell

I expect in a few hundred years from now humans will communicate with grunts and glances while our heads will have evolved to a new natural position, looking downwards as the gadget we hold delivers texts at the speed of thought.

My task was simple. Welcome five women to the stage and invite them to speak. I knew they were going to pay tribute to their mentor but I had no idea how difficult and harrowing their lives had been.

Let’s hear it for the local shop owners and shop workers. It’s important to make this a bumper festive time for them. I say this with a sense of guilt. The last four gifts I ordered for Christmas will arrive in a van, be dropped in the porch and then wrapped at home.

The breeding community lost a friend and asset last week. Annette Covault died Friday, Dec. 13, from complications of ill health that she had dealt with for several years.

Christmas Day TV 1970 and Christmas Day TV 1987 remain special for me.

It might be the rich food, the leftovers, the boxes of chocolates or the never ending dollops of ice cream and hot custard that have left me feeling sick. We all overdo it at this time of year but I’m experiencing extra pangs of guilt as comfort eating has led me down a dangerous festive path.

If I can do it almost anyone can do it. Exactly three years ago motorbiker and e-biker Phillip McCallen set me a challenge to sideline the car and use an e-bike to travel to and from work. Most people who knew me believed one hundred miles each week was well beyond both my capabilities and interests.

I left it late and missed the opportunity to buy tickets for Only Fools and Horses in The Grand Opera House. I hesitated because I’m not convinced I want to see a host of other, no doubt fabulously talented actors playing the parts of these characters I’ve invested so much time in through the years. It’s no exaggeration to say I’ve watched some of the episodes at least 30 times. I genuinely know the dialogue and pride myself as a point scorer in an Only Fools quiz.

I left it late and missed the opportunity to buy tickets for Only Fools and Horses in The Grand Opera House. I hesitated because I’m not convinced I want to see a host of other, no doubt fabulously talented actors playing the parts of these characters I’ve invested so much time in through the years. It’s no exaggeration to say I’ve watched some of the episodes at least 30 times. I genuinely know the dialogue and pride myself as a point scorer in an Only Fools quiz.

I was surprised to hear a teenage footballer admit last week he would rather see his name on the back page of the actual newspaper than on the digital feed of the same publication.