Pizza in Cowley St and other interesting incidents of the day

I was sitting in Cowley St this evening, putting the finishing touches to the North East Democrat, when my colleague Jake offered to go to a local pizza shop. Did I want anything? I thought to myself: pizza or an M&S sandwich for dinner. The pizza won. After I ate it, I felt a twinge of healthy eating guilt. Perhaps I should go to M&S at Kings Cross Station to get some fruit for the journey back to Newcastle? Fruit in Marksies comes in large quantities. Indeed, buy one sack of clementines (okay a sack is a bit of an exaggeration) and get one free. So I clambered aboard my train weighed down with clementines, enough for a marmalade factory. I suspect that's what some of them will be used for. (Watch out for recipes using surplus to requirement clementines and peel on my self-sufficiency blog.)

I mentioned last night that I had been asked to write a small bit for the Journal about National Express. I sent it off this afternoon. I hope it will be published but I have this abiding memory of proudly announcing recently that I had been interviewed by BBC Panorama only to find they had cut my bit at the last minute. So here's to hoping. Anyway, what I forgot to mention last night was that the Journal also did an interview with me about plans by National Express to install ticket barriers at Newcastle Central Station. The interview was carried this morning. The result was that there was a phone call to my house early this morning from Radio Newcastle. David took the call and then phoned me at the flat down in London. And this resulted in a four minute slot on the Mike Parr show this morning, right when I was in the middle of a meeting in which I was leading a discussion on how to improve how we do interesting things to political opponents!

Ultimately I can say all this coverage is down to this blog, read not just by Lib Dems, constituents and political opponents, but by journalists as well. My experiences of National Express are certainly getting noticed!

I have now got through 4 clementines. Only 18 more to go. At current rate of progress, I should have finished them by the time I get home. And by then I guess I'll look like that orange creature on the Tango adverts.

Meanwhile, I shall endure the National Express train journey back to Newcastle. The passenger in front of me is singing along to his ipod in a monotone, the couple behind me are talking loudly about the inheritance they are going to get "now that granny has gone" and the man across the aisle hasn't yet learnt to blow his nose but has got making disgusting noises with the contents of his nose and throat down to a fine art. Only two and a half hours more of this and I'll be in Newcastle. If anyone is thinking of a Christmas present for me, ear plugs would be a good idea!
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