Law

We've had a series of law refreshers for staff today, which were in no way connected to a recent costly legal battle over a story in one of the Advertiser's sister titles. Honest.

The upshot is, after a morning listening to various libel horror stories from regional papers across the country, I've decided against making my feelings known on the subject of clairvoyants.

Guide editor Katie Archer interviewed medium Colin Fry today ahead of his show at the Fairfield.

I'd asked Katie to see if he could contact my cat Lottie, who died the other month at the age of 17, but apparently he refused to play ball, and was none to keen on conducting any other psychic readings over the phone either.

Anyhow, if mediums and clairvoyants are your bag - and I know it's one of the occasions Fairfield can usually guarantee a full house - then fine, but I won't be in attendance.

Apart from my cat failing to contact me from the other side, additional things that have annoyed me today include:

1) Epsom Post editor Patsy Payne spreading wildly inaccurate rumours about how old I will be on my birthday next week.

2) My old primary school doing even more damage to Essex's reputation with its ridiculous decision to replace children's faces with drawings of smiley heads on its website. Story here if you missed it yesterday. Honestly, we face enough curbs on press freedom without going down this route, thank you very much.

3) The Surrey Mirror reader who sent me a letter stating simply: "I dislike your paper intensely", along with a cheque renewing their subscription for 12 months.

Still, it's almost the weekend.