ALAN Sillitoe famously wrote of the Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner.
But I want to pen you a paean to the glorious solitude of running; to the joyous sensation of being alone in the world, when the only thing that matters is putting one foot in the front of the other over and over and over again until you are almost hypnotised by the rythym.
When the pounding of your feet is matched only by the pounding of your heart; and the only sound you can hear is the thump in your ears as blood courses through your veins, feeding your muscles with delicious oxygen.
When you feel as though you could run and run forever and never stop.

The UK has been on the receiving end of an invasion in recent days. There may have only been eleven of them but the Whiskered Terns that turned up (no pun intended) and spread out across the UK created a stir in the birding world.
Birders on Teeside were lucky enough to catch up with two of these fabulous looking Terns at Saltholme Pools RSPB but their visit was a one day only event.
Whiskered Terns breed in East & South Africa, Australia and Europe & Asia. The European population is migratory wintering in Africa. It is a 'Marsh' Tern choosing to breed on inland marshes often near Black-headed Gull colonies.

image courtesy & copyright V Smith

Here is the official confirmation:

A Department of Health spokesperson said: "There have been three more confirmed cases of swine flu in the UK - two inLondon and one in the North East. There are now eight confirmed cases inthe UK - six in England and two in Scotland.

"The preparations we have in place and are continuing to make will help to ensure we respond well in the event of a pandemic.

"Everyone needs to play their part to protect and prepare themselves and their families. There are simple steps that everyone can take to help prevent catching colds and flu based on good respiratory and hand hygiene.

"Always use a tissue to catch your sneezes, throw away used tissues wheregerms can linger and regularly wash your hands."

Further information: If you have flu like symptoms and are concerned, stay at home, if you cango online check your symptoms on the symptom checker on www.nhs.uk or call the swine flu information line on 0800 1 513 513. If you have taken thesesteps and are still concerned call your GP or NHS Direct.

Super-quango The Northern Way has a new man in charge, the North East's own Hugh Morgan Williams.
If you don't know who he is or what the Way is, then there's a good chance you are:
a) a standard representation of the UK population and,
b) not a committed regional affairs reader.

Shame on you.

The wheels seriously seem to be coming off the once-mighty Gordon Brown juggernaut. Should we feel sorry for him?

First his own backbenchers stick two fingers over a cack-handed bid to bounce them into accepting changes to allowances.

Rumblings over that cock-up - as admitted by one minister privately - are ongoing, as you will see in a story that I have done for The Journal tomorrow ahead of a key vote in the Commons.

And now an online petition calling on him to resign has become the most popular on the Downing Street website with more than 28,400 people signing up

A rival petition declaring "every confidence" in the Government and to wait to hold an election until the "last possible moment" has been signed by just six people - including a certain T AntrumsRUs.

In a further blow, Mr Brown has now lost a vote on plans to allow Ghurkas to come to Britain - which Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg tore into in a highly effective speech in Prime Minister's Questions.

FOR the second time in as many professional fights I'll be taking on an opponent who is much heavier than me when I step into the ring at Crowtree Leisure Centre this week.

I've been matched with a German, Roy Meissner, who has had 11 fights and only won two, although both of them were by knockout. That might not sound like too much to worry about but there are other reasons why he will provide a big test.

I sometimes wonder whether this blog about life in the Journal newsroom should be re-titled "Dispatches from an industry in crisis".

Today's bad news is:
(a) independent newsagents are closing at a rate of more than one a day (according to the National Federation of Retail Newsagents);
(b) Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards saying that urgent action is needed to ensure the BBC is not the only supplier of regional and national broadcast news;
(c) the media is "shackled" to such an extent that the UK does not really have a free press (according to the editor of the Daily Express).

You may agree or disagree with some or all of those points, but taken together they show how depressed people in the news business are at the moment.

As with all types of flu, the effect and spread of swine flu is far from predictable. And it is important not to scare-monger when the situation is unclear.

But when the World Health Organisation (WHO) raises the global alert, it is time to sit up - after all they are the experts and should know what they are talking about.

The alarm has been raised to four out of a scale of six, with the WHO saying: "Phase 4 indicates a significant increase in risk of a pandemic but does not necessarily mean that a pandemic is a foregone conclusion." Click here to see the WHO latest.

And it means measures to deal with the potential risk of a pandemic here could soon kick in. Click here to see my story on the issue.

But the seriousness of the situation is underlined by official fears that between 600 and 3,800 people could die a week at the height of a mass flu outbreak lasting nearly four months in Tyne and Wear and Northumberland.

Labour MPs are FURIOUS about Gordon Brown's cack-handed attempts to deal with the growing crisis over MPs' expenses.

The Prime Minister last week announced that he wanted to see the end of the second home allowance - used to help pay for MPs' second homes as it says on the tin.

Now Mr Brown has rowed back from a vote on the issue on Thursday, instead referring it to an independent committee looking at the whole subject of MPs' expenses.

And the whole farago has collapsed into recriminations amongst Labour's own ranks.

One MP said: "Gordon Brown has lost the plot".

They claimed MPs would vote for a "worse" system if the public backed it, but blasted it as less transparent and an even worse system.

Could this be yet another sign of the fag end of a dying Government?

Sunderland doesn't seem to have much look convincing the high and mighty that it is an up and coming city.
A little while back the Tory Party's favourite think tank suggested people could enjoy a better quality of life if they just closed the place down.
Italy seems to agree, going by an article in a leading Italian newspaper which describes the city as poverty-stricken and full of racist alcoholics.
More interesting though is council leader Paul Watson's response to those naughty Italians.
Or lack there of.