I AM in the mood to do something different, something exciting — but what?

And I have to be honest, I don’t want anything dangerous, because doing dangerous things is a lot more frightening than exciting.

I recall the fear I had going down the Cresta Run, but that was nothing to the feeling I experienced when I did the parachute jump where you step out of a plane into nothingness.

After that, the mountain climbing in the Himalayas was a doddle!

So let’s get back to now and what I would like to do.

This is where I think you are going to have to help me. I have always said that I wouldn’t go to a place twice.

Why? Because you wouldn’t have that exciting feeling of discovery, of doing something new, and that is the best part, isn’t it?

Or do you think it is sometimes better to return to somewhere familiar?

  • Events, dances and all sorts of events are staged in East Lancashire all through the year, but I don’t think folk realise how many of these things depend on people who, out of a sense of duty, or maybe just because they enjoy being involved, put in a lot of unpaid time, and effort, to make them happen.

So I would just like to say to those unsung heroes and heroines: Thank you, most of it wouldn’t happen without you.

  • We have been talking about Friday once being pay day.

On that day, my mum always wore a clean apron and had a special tea ready for the ‘wage earners’.

I remember that when my pay was £2, it was agreed that I would tip in 30 bob and keep the rest.

And when I worked at Don Shu, wages were paid at Friday lunchtime, so all those girls with an eye for business would bring out goods for sale, tempting us to part with our hard-earned cash — which, invariably, we did.

While I was there I was chosen to be Miss Don Shu, which dismayed the bosses as I was a size eight shoe.

I think the boss said something like bloody hell!