PAUL LORAINE:

So we have a new manager and, for the second time, Quinny has surprised me with his choice.

I'm not convinced Ricky will be our manager for the 18 months his contract lasts but it still remains a bizzare selection as far as I'm concerned.

The man is clearly a well-respected coach but is giving him his first managerial job when we're in a fairly precarious position a wise idea?

ALTHOUGH I wasn't actually born in my beloved Middlesbrough, I would certainly like to class myself as an adopted daughter of the town. Wherever I go it's always one of the first things I say. Yep, I'm a Boro lass, loud and proud. However, over the years, I have found that something strange has started to happen...

Predicting the future is often a tricky business, if not impossible.

But I reckon that 2009 will be as dramatic politically as 2008 was - indeed the tremors from the last 12 months that saw the near collapse of the global banking system will rumble on through the year.

Fester has just stepped into the bath.
As he removed his boxers and dropped them onto the bedroom floor I asked, rather pointedly,
"And are you going to put on clean underpants tomorrow?"
To which he replied
"I might. Oh no I won't. It's only Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day."

Have a merry one ...

If the number of people in the middle of Newcastle is anything to go by, just about everyone is off work today.

So spare a thought for the poor journalists of this world, most of whom are still working today and many of whom will be working on Christmas Day itself.

The news doesn't stop for anyone and there will be a Journal on Boxing Day. I don't think I'm giving away too many secrets if I let slip the fact that a lot of the stories in that paper will actually have been written in advance to cover for the fact that, generally, not much happens over the festive period.

I attended my fifth and final Wedding Fair of 2008 this week.
And like most things in life, the novelty has well and truly worn off.

I have never changed my name but, as the Christmas cards land on the doormat, I discover myself (and Fester) being addressed in a variety of ways. My surname, his surname, with or without our various first names and initials and then Phil's names as well.

I do admit my insistence on keeping my maiden name when I married Phil Ranson, then using his surname for a short while after he died (when I had no idea who I was or why) then reverting to Boyd when I got together and fell pregnant with Fester, may have muddied the issue a bit. But that was nearly 15 years ago - they should have got it right by now ...

I've had a week of training with different coaches as I decide who will be my new trainer for my pro debut.

I'm going to have to make a decision pretty sharpish because it's only eight weeks until I'll go into the ring for the first time as a professional fighter, hopefully somewhere in the North East. What I might do is just go for someone in my corner specifically for that fight, rather than tying myself to someone longer term.

It turns out that beneath their local Government exterior many of our councillors are a lot more human than you might think.

If there was a law against liking bad music, I would definitely be prosecuted.
On the face of it all, I can come out of a conversation about music looking quite normal. But lurking underneath the thin veneer is a murky underbelly of naffness, just waiting to escape.