I was the same when living in Dubai with the net proving to be an incredible tool and often we'd be text messaging people back home when there was some major incident which had happened and we would be telling them before they had heard about it.

Bit inconvenient when we were four hours ahead and I was getting up at 5am to go to work and, of course, friends would always forget that at 10 o'clock at night in the UK it was 2am where I was and Saturday and Sunday were working days over there having, of course, the Muslim weekend of Thursday/Friday. Deep joy!

So this week I was of the opinion that my neighbour downstairs was somehow onto an unusual timetable as Monday night at 2am I was woken by a full scale party - she plays Amy Whinehouse (yes Steve spelled it like that - Ed) Rehab at full volume at the best of times but when it's three hours before I usually wake up at 4.45am it's particularly annoying and specifically when followed by the Pet Shop Boys Go West - at that moment I wished she would go blinking West with all the people she had invited who were attempting to sing along to it.

The noise continued and, of course, began getting more aggressive with conversations developing into arguments fuelled by - er - well I know it wasn't Magic 1152 Beer coz it wasn't ready to sample at that point.
Anyway I went to work, having been up since 1.45am, and did the show but I failed to appear on time on Wednesday morning as I obviously made sure I covered my head with about six pillows to drown any repeat of the previous night's early alarm call and couldn't hear the three alarm clocks and telephone calls and messages from early morning colleagues and friends.

Well now you know why I wasn't there on time on Wednesday morning.
I did hear that someone did enjoy the non-stop music without any interruptions from me - although I've never believed anything the boss said.

What a nightmare week I've had! It's only by sitting down and writing this that I come to that conclusion.

I went to the Stadium of Light on Sunday and was a victim of secrets - you know the sort of thing - they tell some people but not everyone. So two people know about it but the rest of us are in the dark.

I arrived at the Metro station Sunday morning where there were some posters which actually told me that there were problems between Four Lane Ends and Shiremoor and that was it.

The train to where I wanted to go was going to arrive in 6 minutes and all was good when it came on time - until we approached Heworth and the driver announced that we were all getting off and going on a magical mystery tour bus.

We did get to the ground in time though and the two goals were worth the trip.

On the football front it's got to be mentioned as it's been all over the papers, radio, TV and, as aforementioned, text messages across the world.

There's a K at the Toon as well as at The Stadium of Light now. It's funny remembering being at a Crystal Palace athletics meeting, many moons ago, and getting an interview with one of the prize award presenters - KK.

I asked him if he would ever want to manage Newcastle United. He said what did I think, with him living in Spain and being on the golf course every day in the sun. I said: "well, you haven't said no." So he said: "Well you'd better ask Ossie Ardiles about it." So I said no, I'm asking you.

Eventually he said yes he would like to - in the future 0 about five months later to be exact - but he didn't say he wanted to do it twice!Now that's greedy!

Just a quick one to let you know that places selling our Magic 1152 Beer which, if you buy, gives our Just For Kids charity 10p for each pint, are available at the following:

The Green, Wardley; The Plough, Cramlington; The Briardene, Whitley Bay; The Joiners, Morpeth; Fitzpatricks, Tynemouth; The Chillingham, Heaton; The Twin Farms, Kenton; Fitzgeralds, Sunderland; The Rockliffe, Whitley Bay; The New Bridge, Newcastle; The Ridley Arms, Stannington; The John Bull, Alnwick; The Avalon Hotel, Whitley Bay; Bacchus, Newcastle; Bridge, Newcastle; Crown Posada, Newcastle.
Cheers! Till next week.