That reminds me

Hi gang, welcome to the first TRM of the new year.

I'm grateful to Ron for sliding in for me last week, and I really enjoyed the amusing tale of his RAF, after-dance, boat borrowing' days. You see, we're all daft sometimes!

As I ease myself back into the swing of things, I'm going to start with an apology.

While in the Waterloo Club over Christmas, I was given a ticking-off by Adrian Lewis, home from Scotland for the yuletide break, who said that towards the stern end of last year I'd announced that the following week's TRM would be the Sally McCabe', a boat which is of particular interest to his good lady wife.

Then, when I used the snap of a different craft, the poor wee lass was so disappointed she burnt the porridge, dropped a stitch on the sporran she was knitting and my name was muck with a capital S!

I stuttered my explanation, explaining that the reason for the change was simply cos I'd forgotten I'd included the Sally' a few months previously.

Adrian, with his usual bonhomie, accepted my explanation, and to show there were no hard feelings, partnered me in a game of snooker against the dynamic duo, Derek O and Reliant Robin.

Now I'm not saying it was deliberate, but there was more than a glint of retribution in Ade's tartan twinkle when he missed the simple black which cost us the frame!

One of my resolutions is not to mess with any of the Mac clan of the TRM gang!

The Merc's New Broom seems to have settled in OK. I asked him if TRM column will continue as before, and he nodded, purposefully, tilting his velvet homburg over one eye: "Of course dearboy, your column is used regularly at all our training seminars."

He tilted the homburg over his other eye, this time obscuring his gold tinted monocle.

Feeling chuffed to fluff, I puffed my chest out til my vest was bursting. At last, recognition for my TRM in the local newspapers world. Yippee.

"We find", he went on, balancing the homburg on his nose, "that TRM is a most useful example of how not to write a column!"

I wanted to shove my hamburger up his homburg, but remembered another two resolutions - don't waste food and be kind to hats!

After a dozen New Year's Eve brandy snaps I made a lot of stupid resolutions!

Let's crack on. With a number of mad-cap, fundraising sea dippers who plunge into the icy briny around the county increasing every year, I've selected this snap as the first in 2007.

To tell you the truth it's a bit of a mystery to me. I know abso-blooming nothing about it. Any ideas?

Thanks to all of you who have told me how much you enjoyed my Magical History Tour nonsense, promise me you'll get yourselves seen to!

There'll be the usual rubbish coming up over the next few weeks, hopefully bits of guff that'll be of interest to all tastes.

As well as the popular, super snaparoonies to jog our nossie buds, I've also got a couple of 1950s local rags to pick at, lent by my good mate Mellors (despite his natural disappointment at again just missing out in the TRM Quizzer of the year competition).

There's stuff from Graham C, and snippets from George McDonald's golden' Telegraph Almanac collection to remind us of some of the stories that made the local headlines in days gone by.

So, by looking back, there's much to look forward to.

I haven't yet decided what to do with the quiz. I may change the format or just give it the elbow altogether. I'm open to suggestions.

During a winter when we seem to be getting buffeted and blown even more that usual I'm closing with a news item from 1936 which not only highlights the wonderful job the lifeboat service does, but will also fan the flames for those concerned about the safeness of our harbour, bearing in mind the more volatile sea-traffic our coast will face in the near future, no matter how dire the weather conditions.

"In a fierce gale, on January 5, 1936, two vessels, a Lowestoft drifter, and a small ketch, foundered off the Pembrokeshire coast. The drifter's 10 man crew all perished, but the 64-year-old Irishman, and his son, who manned the ketch, Ethel May, after thrilling work by the Angle lifeboat and St Anne's life saving crew, were rescued."

My last thought is about Christmas. Someone asked me if twelfth night is January 5 or January 6. They wanted to ensure they dismantled their decorations on the correct day. What day do you take yours down?, they enquired. Boxing Day, I replied, that's close enough for me! Ta ra.