Half marathons, teacher training days and a school reunion - the pot pourri that is Passing Shots!

ONE of the downsides of social media is that it rubs in your face those occasions and events which you can't attend.

This morning, flicking through Facebook, there are loads of postings about the Swindon and the Royal Parks half marathons - at least one of which I was hoping to run this morning. That was until my blessed hamstring decided to give me so much jip.

I'm doing the exercises twice daily and have got another physio session tomorrow evening with "Mad Mark". Patience is the name of the game, but it's not easy when you read how everyone is gearing up for their runs this morning.

It's moments like this which make you value the good things in your life, and make you more determined to get back to fitness as soon as possible.


WE had a teacher training day this week at college. Initially told my boss that I wasn't keen to attend since my focus had to be on the students, particularly those on the 20-week journalism course.

In the end, we agreed a compromise and I turned up for half a day's training, and rotated the timetable with extra shorthand lessons so the students didn't miss out.

The first session was about understanding disability, particularly autism, a subject where I learnt absolutely nothing new. It would have been interesting to have understood strategies which might be employed for dealing with various disabilities in class, but that didn't happen.

The second session featured a speaker from Hampshire Police talking about the vulnerability of young students to be radicalised by religion. His presentation style was a little unusual, and at times flippant and patronising, but the subject matter was interesting.

In 2013, a student from Highbury College was among five Portsmouth men who made the trip to Syria, and one of them, Ifthekar Jaman, was killed almost a year ago while fighting with Islamic State in Iraq. He's not the guy in the picture, by the way!

During the teacher training, it was fascinating to hear what police are doing to counter this radicalisation, especially in universities and colleges. One of the ways is to challenge the views of these youngsters. It's an interesting theory.

As for the teacher training day, I still wonder why we have them in the middle of term.

These are the old-style Baker Days, born from the Conservative Government of Kenneth Baker. There is no doubt that these training days are extremely valuable. In business, training is an integral part of an employee's development, and so it should be for teaching.

Before I was a teacher, I questioned why these teacher training days were thrown in the middle of term, causing enormous disruption to pupils and their families. Now as a teacher, I still subscribe to that view.

I get 40 days' holiday a year, plus eight Bank Holidays. Surely it is feasible to organise training days just before the start of a new term - the Monday after the pupils break-up for holidays, or even the Friday before term resumes.


I'M looking forward to a week's time when we have a school reunion in Middlesex.

It was 40 years ago that I began secondary school education at the Mr Chips-like St Nicholas Grammar School in Northwood Hills. That seems a lifetime away.

I was one of the last of the 11-plus brigade and remember cycling the four miles from home in South Ruislip to school every day.

School was not easy. I wasn't gifted academically like some of the other students, and preferred sport to lessons, but I got by.

Anyway, it's going to be fun to catch up with some old school friends, some of whom I haven't seen for almost 35 years when we meet in a pub near Harefield next Saturday evening.

It will be a time to compare grey hairs and waist lines!

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The Isle of Wight - Rotary & Michael Portillo

THE last of the cars are being loaded onto the Wight Sky from a slip of a quay at Yarmouth, at the western end of the Isle of Wight.

It is a gorgeous Sunday afternoon, with drinkers sitting on a sun-terrace right next to the terminal entrance soaking up the last of the late summer weather.

It’s hard to believe this is the first week of October, with the sun beating down on a shimmering  Solent littered by a scattering of yachts. The Isle of Wight is a beautiful place anyway, and when the sun is shining, the island really looks resplendent in its party clothes.

Despite living on the south coast for almost 25 years, I’ve not often made the trip across the Solent. At £71 a throw to bring the car over, it’s not cheap. Whether you’re crossing from Portsmouth, Southampton or Lymington, the three to five-mile ferry trip is among the most expensive commercial boat crossing in the world.

Surely it’s about time the Monopolies Commission took a close look at how Wightlink and Red Funnel can justify such exorbitant charges.

THE reason for the weekend away was to attend the first of a series of Rotary district conferences.

Over the next month, I’m visiting events in Eastbourne and Scarborough on behalf of the charity Hearing Link to promote the “Let’s Loop the UK” campaign.

Despite moving into teaching full-time with Highbury College, I’m still heavily involved with the national charity which provides support for the 10 million people in the UK with hearing loss – two million of whom wear hearing aids.

In the past year, I have been working for Hearing Link to promote the use of hearing loops, and have set up groups in Surrey, Swindon, Chester and Newcastle, to sit alongside an existing initiative in Eastbourne. It is a wonderfully exciting project.

The idea of these groups is to promote awareness of hearing loops among businesses and to encourage greater use of them by hearing aid wearers. It is a huge task and one which involves changing cultures among businesses and people, including hearing aid wearers who have become so disenchanted with non-working hearing loops.

But, this is a challenge which has to be bitten off one piece at a time, working in partnership with a number of national organisations, such as the hearing loop and hearing aid manufacturers, audiologists, and businesses, such as Tesco, the National Trust, HSBC, Asda and Nationwide.

Rotary is another important partnership. In Bembridge on the Isle of Wight, I manned a stand during the three-day district conference for Sussex Rotary clubs. I gave a 15 minute speech to 400 delegates on Sunday morning and over the weekend spoke to a number of people to see if their clubs would be prepared to get involved.

The response has been very positive and it will be interesting to see how many of the initial contacts turn into positive leads. It looks like I’ve got a full speaking diary over the next six months.

As a member of the Click4Action e-Rotary club – more of which another time – I’m acutely aware of how important Rotary can be with the success of the project. We had a similar presence this weekend in Bristol for a Rotary convention of Surrey clubs.

Rotary might seem an out-dated and old-fashioned institution, but I believe it retains its importance, made up of the movers and shakers in our communities.

However, in my speech, I warned Rotarians that they had to carefully look to the future, in order to continue Rotary’s relevance in society today. Rotary memberships are dwindling as people have less time, so it is vital the organisation nationally looks at new and inventive ways of boosting membership.

The “Let’s Loop” campaign is promoting the use of Rotary Community Corps – a sort of Rotary Lite, where volunteers can get involved with Rotary in an informal way, without the commitment. These volunteers could one day be motivated to join Rotary full-time. We have chartered one such group in Swindon.

Rotary sits at the heart of its communities, and in Bembridge I asked the Rotary audience to look at “Let’s Loop the UK” as a vehicle to encourage greater participation by tackling hearing loss, an issue which affects so many people.

IT’S been an interesting few days on the Isle of Wight. I was pleased to meet former MP Michael Portillo, who was at the Rotary conference to give a speech on behalf of the charity Debra – an organisation which works with children suffering with Epidermolysis Bullosa.

I wasn’t able to hear his speech, but I’m told it was very funny, and disarming, with a few pointed anecdotes about his days working with Margaret Thatcher as a member of the Cabinet.

We chatted briefly towards the end of his visit about his work with Debra and Hearing Link. He’s a very charming man, and the lady from Debra was saying how the reaction of some female Rotarians to him was quite amazing.

One lady, clearly flirting with the former Conservative Minister, was, to put it bluntly, quite tactile.

Another told a clearly taken aback Portillo that they were having bets at what this debonair follower of fashion was wearing. It was a slightly creased blue jacket, but as a definite non-follower of fashion, I can’t embroider this description with any more detail.

Still, he took time to speak to everyone and was a consummate gentleman. Nice guy!  

The worst running day of my life - but I'll learn from it!

The pacemakers for the Ealing Half Marathon, with me far right.

MANY years ago in a black and white era, we were all encouraged by our school to embark on a 10-mile sponsored walk to raise funds for a new minibus.

I was just 14-years-old, But on a cold Wednesday afternoon, together with my schoolfriend Andy, we put on our running shoes and ran the 10 miles non-stop with barely any training, no water stations, and with very little sweat.

For most of my running career, I've winged it. I've trained, but perhaps never as assiduously as I should, and fared okay. I could get by.

Today, I got found out. For the past six weeks I've been struggling with a niggly hamstring injury. I've rested the injury, had physio and had my first run-out a week ago with an eight-miler through the New Forest.

Even then, I knew running as a pace-maker for the Ealing Half Marathon would be a step too far, but the arrogance of experience told me I had the strategies and mental toughness to get through it. What an idiot!

With fellow pacer, Vicky Watkins

Eight miles into the race today on a bright, sunny Sunday, I could see my pace was dipping. It wasn't that fast, just over 8 minutes 20 seconds a mile. My fellow pacer, Vicky, was already 150 metres ahead. My legs had died, there was no power going uphills, and the fitness levels were struggling.

Ordinarily, I would have slowed down, dug in and battled my way to the finish. But I had a dozen runners around me following the guy in orange with a six-foot flag planted in his rucksack. If I strayed off the pace, they would have been furious. There was no place to hide.

So I had to step off the road near to where some medics were stationed. They gave me some painkillers and put some rub on my hamstring, but there was nothing they could give for the appalling lack of fitness.

To add insult to injury, I had to walk back the three miles to the finish, clutching my huge orange flag. I felt so humiliated. Rather than stick to the race route to find my way back, I headed down side roads to get back to the finish in Lammas Park and return my gear.

This was definitely a running low. The worst running experience ever. But, it is an experience to be remembered and never repeated.

A return visit to the physio beckons, plans to run in the Royal Park Half Marathon in two weeks' time abandoned, and now the slow road back to fitness begins.

Whereas years ago I could have dogged it out and battled through, today age and lack of fitness caught up with me. In this situation, honesty is always the best policy.

STICKING with the running theme, it's a tad ironic that I was committed to joining 17,000 other runners as a pace-maker for the Parks Half Marathon on October 12th. That same day is the Swindon Half Marathon, which I have run in for the last six years, five of them as a pace-maker.

This year, organisers the British Heart Foundation, have apparently decided to do without pace-makers. I write apparently, because I have emailed them a number of times to ask if they are using pacers this year, but I've been passed from pillar to post and heard nothing.

Now, word is that BHF aren't going to use pace-makers. They might have the decency to let me know.

If that is the case, then it is a huge mistake. BHF took over with organisation of the race for the first time 12 months ago. It was a soulless, lack-lustre event which seemed to have lost its edge; especially the pre-race build-up.

The BHF is a very worthwhile charity who run a series of running races around the country to raise funds. However, their one size fits all approach is not working.

Previously, the Swindon Half Marathon was organised the the council in conjunction with Nationwide. Thanks to the organisational skills of Helen Maine and Cathy Caulfield, the Swindon Half grew in stature. The feedback from runners drawn from a variety of abilities was invariably positive.

It was as a result of trying to find ways of developing the Swindon Half ,that the very successful Shin Splints group was formed in the town. This was a free group set up to encourage new runners to take part in either the half marathon or shorter multi-terrain event by training in an informal and less intimidating atmosphere.

Today, the Shin Splints is one of the most successful running clubs in Swindon, offering free and sociable running to a legion of people dipping their toes for the first time.

That is what the Swindon Half is all about and it is a shame that the soul of this great race is being lost.

Sheffield & the Scots

DAWN is breaking in Sheffield as I write this from the eighth floor of my hotel room overlooking the Steel City.

My 18-year-old son Leo is asleep, but in an hour's time we have to be up, washed, breakfasted and on our way to the university for our 8.30am to 9am slot to pick up the keys to his student accommodation.

As is the want of a young man, emotions are buried, but I can tell that there's a knot in the stomach and the butterflies are raging - the key, I told Leo last night - is to get the butterflies flying in formation!

Leo is studying linguistics and Japanese at the University of Sheffield. Boy, he could have chosen easier subjects and even a university closer to home, but this is what he wants to do and the way he is approaching this new venture makes this particular father very proud.

It's very easy to deride the youth of today, but as Leo joins 5,000 other University of Sheffield students moving into their halls of residence this weekend, I know that this is a journey he has to make, and one he will never forget.

I've been to Sheffield a number of times. I have spent several days at the Ponds Forge complex covering swimming championships, and remember taking my two eldest sons along when they were infants.

I'll never forget that unusual smell of chlorine and fatty fast food which hits you as you walk into the entrance of the swimming pool!

And I've reported on matches at Hillsborough and Bramall Lane, the homes of Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United football clubs, two grounds steeped in tradition and with proud histories.

I love Sheffield and last night as we walked through the city centre, past the fountains lit up at night, there is a vibrancy about the place. It's Leo's home for the next four years - and I hope he feels at home here.


I'm not a political person by nature. As an editor, I've had to keep my politics buried, but now I'm teaching, particularly government and public affairs, my antennae are twitching!

I've watched the whole Scottish independence debate with huge interest, and some amusement too.

I've also shared a sense of bewilderment at what is happening in the aftermath of the Scots saying by a margin of 55% to 45% that they want to remain a part of the United Kingdom.

Now there is talk of concessions being made to appease the pro-Independence movement. Scottish Nationalist Party mouthpieces are calling on the Westminster parties to live up to their rash promises of giving the Scottish people more devolved powers; promises the political leaders did not have the gift to give.

Ultimately, Parliament will decide whether more powers are to be given to Scotland and I hope that MPs will be given a free vote to decide - I doubt it.

Let's not forget, that 10% is a huge swing, and I wonder of the majority of Scots who voted to stay a part of the UK, how many of them want more powers for Scotland, or how many want to keep the status quo?

Because the point is this. An election was held, the people have voted, and that is democracy. Had the SNP and the Scottish Independence movement won with an exact reverse of the result, would they have been offering concessions to the 1.6 million Scots who had voted to stay in the Union?

You bet they wouldn't!

The legend that is Dave Kett

FOR journalists all over the country, the name Dave Kett will be very familiar.

The guy is a legend who has taught public affairs on the south coast for more than 40 years. Among his former pupils at BBC Five Live's political correspondent, John Pienaar, the BBC's home editor, Mark Easton, and the ITN newsreader, Mark Austin.

Dave began teaching at Highbury College in 1971 and he has also taught at the University of Bournemouth and the Southampton Institute.

Last year, he was presented with the NCTJ chairman Kim Fletcher's award for his outstanding contribution to journalism training and education. In presenting Dave with the award, Kim described him as "the eminence grise of public affairs".

Since taking over running the journalism courses at Highbury College, Dave has offered me some very useful counsel over the summer break. Since I will also be teaching public affairs this year - Dave taking the Fast Trackers and I've got the One Years - the sage of PA has been very generous in helping me to prepare for delivering the course.

Last Thursday, I sat in on Dave's class to see the master at work. For two-and-half hours, he had the young journalists spellbound with a textbook display of teaching. It was a masterclass of engaging with the students, connecting with the subject and engaging in the conversation.

Topically, Dave's first lesson looked at the British Constitution and with the Scottish independence vote looming next week, on the State of the Union.

Whatever the outcome next Thursday, the role of government in the UK will be the same, predicted Dave. Whatever Scotland get, Wales and Northern Ireland will want a piece of it too. And will England look towards it own government or even regional assemblies? It's an interesting point.

I'm not that bothered. Like a unhappy girlfriend who keeps telling you that she wants to leave, I say just let her go. I can't do with this pandering to the Scots.

Anyway, what right have the three political party leaders go to offer concessions without the vote of Parliament - in other words, England's democratically-elected politicians? If Scotland want to go, then let them go.

During this first public affairs lesson, Dave explained what is known as the West Lothian question, warning the students not to get too angry once he'd told them about it.

The West Lothian question relates to the former Labour MP for West Lothian, Tam Dalyell, who raised the point back in 1977. He asked why Scottish, Welsh, or even Northern Irish MPs have the same right to vote in Westminster as any English MP, now that larges area of policy are devolved to the national parliaments and assemblies.

Dalyell was an anti-devolutionist who argued how it would be unfair for Scottish MPs to have equal rights to vote on English-only legislation.

So, it is ironic and galling that in January 2004, Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair, needed the support of Scottish Labour MPs to introduce tuition fees, a policy firmly rejected in Scotland and where university education is free - but where they will charge English students up to £9,000.

Now that really sticks in the craw.

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Nuts, whole hazelnuts.....

FIRST full week at college, and it's been fun.
I've got two journalism classes to look after; one is a 20-week Fast Track course primarily consisting of graduates who have spent their three years in academia before topping off their degree with an NCTJ qualification.
And the other class is a year-long journalism course where the students are primarily based in the newsroom at the Portsmouth News, where I teach twice a week.
It's a fantastic opportunity for these youngsters, most of them fresh out of A Levels, to gain newsroom experience while studying the key journalism essentials of shorthand, law, public affairs, reporting and ethics.
This year we interviewed hard and set the bar high. We rejected a number of candidates who had no idea what they wanted to do career-wise, but who thought journalism was sexy and would be a way of passing the time.
As a result, we've got two 12-strong classes of really bright and enthusiastic young journalists who want to learn. They got stuck into shorthand this week, and their willingness to both ask questions and to challenge was enormously refreshing.
News of my appointment was featured on the regional journalists' website Hold The Front Page and prompted a flurry of congratulatory emails and Facebook messages from ex-colleagues across the country, which was great.
Week one out of the way, and I survived.

Every week on the course we have an enrichment session on a Wednesday afternoon. "Enrichment session" sounds a bit of a naff name, but it's an opportunity to bring in people from the industry to talk about journalism and specific areas such as photography, feature writing and online reporting.
This week, we kicked off with Daniel Bates, an ex-Highbury student who is now freelancing for the Mail Online in New York. He was back home in Blighty visiting his folks in nearby Havant when he popped in to talk to the students about his career.
Recently, Daniel was covering the Ferguson riots in Missouri which had followed the shooting dead by police of black teenager, Michael Brown.
Having an English accent in America is a definite ice-breaker for a journalist. However it was interesting to hear how many of the gathered media were content to rely on police reports and simply covering the protests.
"There is nothing to replace the old habit of getting rid of a bit of shoe leather and just knocking on doors," said Daniel. "The other press wondered what we were doing, but we got some great lines for our copy because of that extra hard word."
Asked by one of the students for a tip to pass on to fellow journalists, Daniel suggested at the end of an interview to slip in the question: "And is there anything else you want to say?"
This simple question enables an interviewee to reflect on the interview, think about what they've said, and they might come up with a nugget of useful information.
A few years ago, Daniel was covering the story of a woman who had given birth on the pavement outside Poole Hospital. It was a pretty conventional story of a woman who suddenly gone into labour and was quickly driven to hospital by her partner, but who gave birth even before she reached the maternity unit.
At the end of the interview, Daniel asked the all-encompassing question: "And is there anything else?" The woman replied that there was. "You'll never guess what?" she replied. "On the birth certificate, it says the baby wasn't born at Poole Hospital, but that it was born on the street"
And there was the angle to the story!

I'm writing this when I should be out running on a glorious, sunny Sunday morning. But I am at home tapping away.
The troublesome right hamstring remains troublesome. A gentle run a week ago started to give me jip on Monday morning, so I went to see my physio friend Mark at his practice in Park Gate, Hampshire.
I've known Mark since my run around the British Isles seven years ago when, thanks to his work, my body survived the year-long ordeal.
Mark spent half an hour working my leg with ultra sound and manipulating other parts of my body. It's still not quite right, so another trip to the physio beckons.
It is so tempting just to give my legs a run-out, but I know I will be cruising for a bruising if I don't allow the hamstring to heal properly.

Finally, I went to see the musical show "That'll Be The Day" at the Bournemouth Pavilion last night with my wife Alison and some friends. I wasn't sure what to expect with this musical journey through the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, but it was a pleasant surprise.
I think Alison and I were some of the youngest in the audience, but it was amazing how easily the words to songs you haven't heard for years come to mind so quickly.
Wonderful music, good comedy, and a gentle dip into nostalgia, especially when the compere started singing some of the adverts of the 1970s and asked the audience to sing back the pay-off lines...
"Nuts, whole hazelnuts....."

Passing Shots - back with a vengeance!

JUST like any diet, the golden rule about writing blogs is that you've got to make it sustainable! 
Have something to say should be the cardinal rule, which is why Passing Shots has been putting its feet up for the past 10 months.
However, much has happened since my last blog.
I've moved - yet again! - for about the 12th time in 10 years and I've just started a dream job heading up the journalism programme at Highbury College in Portsmouth.
However, I am still working for the charity Hearing Link, focusing on the hearing loop programme which has become a labour of love over the past 12 months.
I am also freelancing as a copywriter for a friend who is setting up a public relations company in Wiltshire.
Add to that mix an infernal passion for running, plus a family life which makes John Boy and The Waltons seems decidedly dull, and there's definitely plenty of content to be working with. So here goes.....

West Ham's Jimmy Greaves being tackled by
Manchester City's Mike Doyle at a
muddy Maine Road in 1970

HAVE you noticed as you get older, you tend to wallow in any dollop of nostalgia which is served up?
"Match of the Day at 50" was a golden opportunity to revel in a time when football, especially the offside rule, was simple. As the great Spurs manager, Bill Nicholson, once said: "If he's not interfering with play, what's he doing on the pitch?"!
This sublime blast of soccer sentimentality reminded you how, for many years, only the FA Cup Final was broadcast live on TV. A glorious day when you had chose between the BBC or ITV coverage from the early morning build-up. It made live football special, and an occasion to be cherished.
Muddy pitches, Saturday football with three 'o clock kick-offs, blistering tackles without any quarter given and no bookings dished out, footballers with names you could pronounce and from countries you'd heard of, plus a weekly audience with some greatest commentators; Barry Davies, John Motson, David Coleman and Kenneth Wolstenholme (not forgetting the king of commentators, ITV's Brian Moore).
There was plenty of images of Jimmy Hill on the Match of the Day documentary. It's sad to reflect that Jimmy, who did so much to change the face of modern football, is now 86 and resting in a care home suffering from dementia.


SEPTEMBER 1st heralds the start of a new term at Highbury College in Portsmouth, and, from a personal perspective, a fresh beginning as I head up the NCTJ journalism programme.
I can't wait. I've met many of the students who will be embarking on the 20-week Fast Track course, as well as the One Year programme which is based at the Portsmouth News.
While you might suspect that as the media industry has contracted in recent years with fewer jobs being offered, the demand for journalism training remains as strong as ever.
We've got 26 students signed up for both courses, and a healthy set of enquiries for the next Fast Track course in February. We've got teenagers fresh from finishing their A Levels, graduates looking to add a journalism qualification to their degree, and we've got a couple of students who have decided on a career change.
All have one vision in mind - they want a career in journalism; newspapers, magazines, digital, public relations, television and radio.
It promises to be an interesting and exciting course. Despite more than 30 years' experience as a journalist, I've got a lot to learn as a teacher, but I have aspirations of establishing Highbury as the number one journalism training college in the UK.


TALK about being last with the news, but I only learned this morning of the passing of former colleague, Les Horton - who died three years ago! 

Les Horton

Colin Young, who was also a colleague of mine at the Gulf Daily News in Bahrain back in the late 1980s, sent me a Tweet to ask if I had heard.
Les, who was news editor when Colin and I worked there, died of cancer after a 14-month battle. He was just 56.
I often think about my newsroom dream team, and Les would definitely be there - as would Colin, a wily Geordie who is a fantastic business reporter..
When I arrived in Bahrain in 1988, Les took me under his wing initially. I stayed at his flat in Manama, got introduced to the joys of The Londoner pub, and he would let me borrow his his flashy orange Jeep on jobs from the GDN's offices in Isa Town. Open top in the blistering sunshine - bliss!
Being a journalist in Bahrain is not easy, with the spectre of censorship constantly hanging over you, and access to official information never straightforward.
Sometimes it could take you several days to nail the simplest of stories, and Les taught me the value of tenacity in chasing a story and also how to get out of an editorial hole.
I call it cul-de-sac journalism; when you believe that every source has been exhausted, but you then step up a gear to think laterally and discover another way to hook the story. Sometimes it takes a side-step to move upwards.
Les was one of the best with a brilliant nose for news and a superb strategist.

Keith Newbery

This summer, we also lost another fine journalist who would be in my newsroom dream team.
Keith Newbery was an old school journalist and one of the finest writers I've ever had the opportunity to work with. He commanded respect in a newsroom, built upon years of wisdom.
Keith's writing was as sharp as butcher's knife, and his comment columns took a tack which few journalists ever ventured down. I was in awe of the man when I worked at the Portsmouth News, but who was very gracious in giving you the time to talk about the job.
Finally, not a death, but a departure.
I couldn't help but notice the news earlier this month that Shamus Donald has stepped down as managing director of Newsquest in Oxfordshire and Wiltshire.
Shamus was at the helm when I was editor of the Swindon Advertiser. He ran a tight ship when the industry went through the stormiest of waters after 2008 which required a total restructuring of the operation. As a result, the two divisions remained the most profitable in the Newsquest empire while really pushing ahead with a digital vision which left other publishers trailing in their wake.
It's fair to say that Shamus and I didn't always see eye-to-eye. I don't play the politics, I just get on with the job. But, I'd like to think I played my part in Swindon, generating some of the highest newspaper circulations and digital performance in Newsquest at the time, as well as establishing the Adver's reputation as a newspaper which really connected at the heart of the community.
While I am certainly not on Shamus's Christmas card list, I retain enormous respect for the Scot for what he achieved during some of the toughest economic conditions the regional press has ever faced. I wish him well.


And finally, running. I had my first run this morning in more than three weeks. 
It was just great to get out first thing on a Sunday.
It's funny how the simplest of injuries can cause the longest of lay-offs. I ran a gentle early morning four-miler around Lydiard Park in Swindon earlier this month and felt a slight hamstring twinge. I ran a few days later, when I shouldn't have, and I could barely walk afterwards.
It has been tough, really tough not to run. I read with envy all of my friends' race updates on Facebook. Driving on roads through the New Forest, you see runners and cyclists enjoying the beautiful countryside and I wish I was with them.
As you get older, injuries take longer to recover. This was nothing more I could do for a nasty hamstring pull than to ice it and rest.
This morning's four-miler wasn't totally pain-free, but it was a start. I think an appointment with the physio is in order this week, with some big half marathons coming up this autumn.