Published in the Littlehampton Gazette November 8th. 2012

REMEMBER, REMEMBER:After a long walk along the coast from LA, I walked into a small village pub and ordered a pint. The old man at the end of the bar nodded and, unprompted, told me he was ninety five and had lived there all of his life. Told me he had spent five years away in the army in WW2, much of it in Burma and, upon his return and knowing that his mother had died while he was away, walked up the street to where he met his father who was on his way to Chichester and told him that the house was empty.  Some homecoming! That, he told me, was and when it hit him and said, sadly, that he ‘…was very upset!’ Some understatement! Do we ever stop to think enough about what the men and women we send to fight our wars go through? I think not and this month is a good time to think about just that. Remember, our people are still fighting and dying in outlandish parts of the world at this very moment and although I expect many of them, like me, wonder what the hell they are doing there, they do their duty regardless. See you at the war memorial on November 11^th.

THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER:Thank goodness though that life is not all doom and gloom. Last weekend my daughter ran the London Run to the Beat half marathon. So what? So did 18,000 other people, ah, but they were not Harriet. She is not sporty, she does not even walk fast and is usually about as mobile as a door-stop. Her favoured position when not at work is on the sofa with her Ipad, or Iphone exercising her thumbs. She gave up cigarettes, red wine, chips and ran through her pain every evening for three months. On that Sunday she came down the final straight like a breeze smiling and waving to me as she crossed the finish line looking like she had a lot more run in her yet.  She was pumped and the charity she was running for in memory of her late mum was nearly £600 better off. Incredible what one can do if one really wants to, I couldn’t have been more proud of her!