We have the good fortune to live next door to a football referee.
And no, he doesn’t wear spectacles.
And no, we have no reason to suspect he may need them either.

It is my first practise session tonight, where I am going to test out my new "pool glove". Hopefully I shall be able to return to my previous form which saw me regularly run out racks one after the other when I was playing well.

Those fab people at the ethical fashion superstore Adili are having a final summer clearance, so go on-line and see if you can bag yourself a bargain.

The children are spending their last week of the summer holidays at Grandma’s and I thought that my lovely husband and I could spend our last night of ‘childfreeness’ (I think that I just made up a new word) enjoying a good meal out.
I duly googled ‘Newcastle Organic Restaurant’ and amongst the usual suspects spotted one that I had never considered before: Oldfields.
As it turns out Oldfields do not sell themselves as an organic restaurant, but claim to be one of the first restaurants in Durham and Newcastle to serve a seasonal menu with local ingredients. Preferably I would like organic AND local, but denied that option what should you do? Thus ensued a debate which lasted throughout dinner about ‘local versus organic’.

Greetings,

I'm doing a World War Two re-enactment for Whalton Village Fair on Saturday 22nd September, anyone interested in taking part as service personnel, land girls, Home Guard or Nazi spy please feel free to contact me (john_sadler@btinternet.com). Times are 10.00 - 4.00

Just as life is full of contradictions, so is the news.

Earlier this week, The Journal carried an interview with an international rower from Denton Burn, in Newcastle, which seemed to prove the notion that rowing is no longer just for posh people.

Today, we had another story about rowers and one of them was called Charles-Antoine d'Oncieu de Chaffardon. Ho hum...

GOOD THING: NEW METRO MACHINES

So the Metro system is going to get a £50 million overhaul, including £14.3 million to be spent on new ticket machines. Well, that at least nearly equals the amount of money I’ve had to spend just to get change for the machines over the past 6 years of my working life.

Friends,

I'm offering a charity event at Bolam Church, surprisingly at Bolam on Saturday 8th September, in tandem with Northumbria Historic Churches Steeplechase.

I love Farmers' Markets. I love pottering around, I love chatting to, in most cases, the actual producer and I really love tucking in to a basketful of goodies that I know hasn’t been airfreighted from thousands of miles away and sprayed with preserving chemicals to within an inch of its life.

With this in mind, I was most grateful when yesterday I was contacted by Nic Best, who amongst doing other green type things, runs the website for the Northumberland Farmers' Markets Association.

Today I was walking into work when I was stopped on Northumberland Street by a woman doing some market research.

Just as I was about to tell her that I was too busy, she let on that she was doing research on road charging in the North-East - a pretty hot topic in these parts.

With my keen nose for a story (!) I confirmed that, actually, yes, I would be happy to answer questions on road charging.

At this point, she handily gave me some maps with a load of options for different road prices - which you can see in tomorrow's Journal.