DON’T worry, I’m not going to mention the election.
I made that mistake yesterday.
When I visited the offices of a large law firm in Leeds I commented to the receptionist that I was surprised to see a polling station in the ground floor lobby of the building.
She told me that she had voted in every election since she was 18-years-old except one – “And that’s because I couldn’t”, she helpfully explained.
I commented that it would be nice if all younger people displayed such an approach to suffrage.
She replied: “ I think I’ve got to, it wasn’t long ago that women didn’t have the vote.”
I wasn’t sure whether she was looking at me like I was to blame for that so I changed the subject and asked if I could use the toilet.
“Which one do you want?” asked one of her colleagues.
I said: “I think the men’s will be fine for me,” but I suppose you’ve got to be careful these days.
When I came out I told the reception staff that I did think I was in the wrong place anyway as I had no use for the hairdryer in the gents.
ONE thing I didn’t mention last week was a lovely trip out to the east coast to watch cricket in glorious sunshine.
Perhaps that’s because by Friday, when I was writing my blog, it was chucking it down from gloomy skies.
Sitting on a deckchair on Monday watching Yorkshire playing Gloucestershire at Scarborough Cricket Club was almost a distant memory.
I was invited as a guest of Hull and York law firm Andrew Jackson which is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year.
I reminded partner Chris Waterhouse and managing partner Mark Pearson-Kendall that last year when they invited me it rained all day.
Not a ball was bowled, but I had a great time enjoying the company of their guests ably stewarded by business development director Adam “The Saint” Sinclair.
Chris said he had had a word to arrange better weather.
And the guests on my table were up to the usual Andrew Jackson standard.
I was sitting next to Nick Brown, scion of the family owned department store business Browns which has shops in York, Helmsley, Beverley and Gainsborough.
With his flowing mane of hair, booming voice and lively stories, Nick proved great company.
Sitting on the other side of me was a lawyer who I first met at a test match at the Newlands cricket ground in Cape Town several years ago.
Former Irwin Mitchell partner Andrew Darke was with friends including fellow lawyers David Knaggs, Richard Larking and wealth manager Paul MacIntosh, watching England playing in South Africa.
I remember the lunch we had that day is definitely the best food I’ve ever had at a sporting occasion – deep fried calamari and chips bought from a stall at the back of the stand named ‘Mr Calamari’.
It was £2 for a large portion and it was superb.
I last saw Andrew Darke two years ago on my television screen.
A day after Sheffield golfer Matt Fitzpatrick won the US Open, Sky Sports News was interviewing Andrew as the captain of the new champion’s home course, Hallamshire Golf Club.
Another guest I bumped into at the cricket in Scarborough was fellow former journalist Dave Laister.
To be fair to Dave, he lasted a lot longer than me in the world of newspapers.
He had a 20 year career covering business news in Grimsby, Cleethorpes and across the Humber region before being made redundant.
He is now the PR and media director of Hull-based marketing firm Fred.
Unfortunately I missed a recent event at The Business Day conference in Bridlington when Dave turned the tables on host, the well known raconteur Giles Brandreth.
Dave spent an hour interviewing Giles, the job Giles usually does with the big name guests that appear at the event.
I asked Dave how it went.
“I thought it went really well, I was able to ask Giles more questions than I expected in the hour that we were on stage,” he told me.
How many was that, I asked?
“Three,” he replied.