Just back from a quick trip to Scotland to watch Dundee United play UNA Strassen of Luxembourg.

I drove to St Andrews and stayed not in a hotel but in a small self-catering apartment in my old school. Yes, you read that correctly.

Twenty years ago this month I visited Toronto for the first and only time.

The trip was prompted by work because at the time (2005) we were fighting the threat of a workplace smoking ban.

According to Cancer Research UK, an estimated 28.6 billion cigarettes are smoked in Britain each year.

On the back of this Hazel Cheeseman, chief executive of ASH, and I were interviewed on GB News. According to Hazel, the fact that tobacco products are legal is “one of those weird freaks of history”.

Last week I was delighted to attend a dinner to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Freedom Association.

And given the advanced age of most of the guests, the medieval Baron’s Hall at Penshurst Place was arguably the perfect venue!

When I visited Gibraltar 13 years ago I was a bit sniffy about the place.

In truth I don’t remember a great deal apart from the fact that we arrived in port on a cruise ship. We then disembarked and walked to Main Street, the pedestrianised thoroughfare, which was crowded and, to my eyes, a bit grubby.

I should have been in Gibraltar today.

But thanks to French air traffic controllers my flight was cancelled and instead of spending the day exploring the Rock – including the World War II tunnels and cave system – I am at home in Cambridgeshire. Grrr …

Bit late to this but I wanted to write something about Mick Ralphs whose death at the age of 81 was reported last week.

A founding member of Mott the Hoople, Ralphs played a small but important part in my early teenage years.

Sorry to hear that Sandy Gall has died. The former journalist and ITN newsreader had a remarkable career that went slightly under the radar but he was up there with the very best.

He was also the first prominent person I ever interviewed. The year was 1979. Mrs Thatcher had just been elected prime minister and Gall was rector of Aberdeen University, having been elected to the honorary post the previous year.