Believe everything you read in the papers!

I had a ridiculously early start to the day today - well for me anyway. I tend not to be much of a morning person and although I do my best work in the morning, sometimes I have to work harder at the thinking bit.

I drove into the centre of Hull in thick dense fog.

I was asked to review the papers this morning on BBC Radio Humberside for the brilliant breakfast show presenter, the very professional Andy Comfort. I've done it a few times now but it never gets any easier. I arrived at the studio around 7 am which is about quarter of an hour later than I like for me and that gave me twenty minutes to go through the papers and pick five stories to mention and give a personal view or comment upon.

I try to pick things I'm interested in or know a little about and perhaps have an opinion about. It helps I suppose that I like keeping abreast of the news, more from a national perspective than a local one these days - I tend to be a bit jaundiced about the quality of some of the local news output. In any case, politically, I have to keep a weather eye out for what's happening which might affect my work.

This morning I picked:

• Energy (mentioned in yesterday's blog) and the need to secure it for the future;
• The national debt of £1,485 billion debt (equates to £56,000 per household);
• Cuts in public spending after the next election;
• The recall of faulty Toyota cars (180,000 in the UK and 5 million worldwide);
• The castle built by Mr Fidler in Surrey without planning permission.

I try to pick a fun story and the last one I mentioned was the castle - I find it hilarious, but I guess Mr Fidler is less than impressed. It all seemed to go okay, Andy is a great conversationalist who puts everyone at ease and I was well looked after by Clare the producer and stand-in helper, the versatile Steve Redgrave with a cuppa and a water before I went on air to ease the sore throat.

I had finished by 7.45 am and just avoiding the need to buy a parking ticket, drove off to work.

Instead of doing my usual exercise tonight, my other half suggested we go for a walk. Off we set and arrived home 45 minutes later. We debated how far we'd walked and we couldn't make our minds up so we got in the car and measured it! How sad is that? We walked 2.5 miles. Despite the grey damp winter night, it was a pleasant walk none-the-less.

Today's story has a journalistic theme.

A local sports reporter was covering a local Sunday League derby match and noticed that one of the teams was fielding an incredibly wizened looking old man. The reporter thought that he might be in the presence of the oldest player in the country, so keen to find out something about the old man to help make the lead story in Monday's paper, he asked, "Tell me, do you have a special diet?"
"Oh yes," the man replied, "Every day I drink eight pints of strong lager and a bottle of Scotch, I smoke about 40 cigarettes a day and all I eat is chips."
"That's incredible," said the reporter, "How old are you?"
"Twenty eight."

Chat soon

Ta-ra.