Hextol

Culinary arts leave me with egg all over my face

Published 27 November 2008

AM I the only man alive not the slightest bit interested in cooking?

Playtime is just grand with Genghis Khan and his girls

Published 20 November 2008

HAVE you ever woken with a start in the early hours of the morning, with the inescapable feeling you are not alone?

It’s all aboard the train for a trip down memory lane

Published 13 November 2008

I DID something I have been meaning to do for a long while on Friday – I went from Hexham to Newcastle on the train.

Killjoys take the bang out of Bonfire Night

Published 6 November 2008

WHAT A desperately dull affair Bonfire Night has become in these Nanny State times.

Consternation at the checkout after week of hell

Published 30 October 2008

HAVE you ever had one of those weeks when you wish you had been confined to bed for seven days?

Uncovering the mysteries of the mobile phone

Published 23 October 2008

After a long and determined rearguard action, which saw me presented with two second-hand phones, neither of which I have ever used, I now finally have a mobile phone of my very own.

Shortcomings exposed on weekend fishing trip

Published 9 October 2008

I HAVE been a little miffed of late by the increasing number of people who assume I am on the verge of retirement.

Easy pickings for the raptors on the Costa Lotto

Published 2 October 2008

ONE of the beauties of going to Spain is that everyone speaks English.

My better half sniffs out a mystery in the loft

Published 25 September 2008

IF she wasn’t already fully employed looking after me, Mrs Hextol would have been a wonderful asset to any police force.

Nature had its way of teaching us how to have fun

Published 18 September 2008

WHEN did anyone last see an oak apple?

The light goes out on my saturated thingymabob

Published 11 September 2008

MIGHT I take this opportunity to tender my apologies to anyone I may have overtaken at an unseemly lick the other day?

Bazaar behaviour has a time-honoured tradition

Published 4 September 2008

IN ALL my four decades working on the Courant, I have never known a story grip the attention of the national and international press as much as Tynedale Council’s bid to gag the barkers on Hexham Market.

When it comes to electronics I’m a real washout

Published 28 August 2008

WE bid a fond farewell to an old and faithful friend this week.

Flushed and bothered about the lights going out

Published 21 August 2008

IF YOU are easily offended. might I suggest you skip this column this week, as I intend to touch upon a matter of some delicacy?

All was fun at the fair . . . then disaster struck!

Published 14 August 2008

NOW I don’t want to give the impression that I am always on holiday, but I happened to be at a well known caravan park in the north of the county the other week.

Hairy recollections from my unfashionable past

Published 7 August 2008

I WAS casting through some ancient family photographs the other day, and was struck by the lack of sartorial elegance of myself and my brother in the 1950s.