It’s my first public health on call tonight: nervously waiting for the phone to ring! It’s about 20 months since I did my last hospital on call, so I’m no longer used to being at the mercy of the phone, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it fairly quickly!

Wendy, her mum, and I lunched in Olive and Bean today. Their paninis are delicious, and the service is always great too. If ever you’re looking for somewhere a bit different for a coffee or a sandwich in Newcastle, Olive and Bean comes highly recommended!

This is my lovely birthday caked, baked by Asda with additional icing by Wendy! Yum!

This advert was in the window of WHSmith in the Metrocentre today. I was amazed that anyone could be promoting software to “protect” an e-reader (protect from what?!), but also amazed to see that Peter Norton no longer features on the boxes of Norton products.

Wikipedia says the latter has been the case since 2001, which surprises me. I wonder, given that Mr Norton is 69 this year, whether it’s a case of marketing ageism? I suspect probably not, I guess pictures of software engineers on products are just not fashionable any more. That said, the fictional Mavis Beacon still beams on the packaging of that software.

Newcastle is indeed located in Scotland. It is a city, not a capital.

The response from lowcostholidays to Jamie O’Neill’s email pointing out that Newcastle isn’t, in fact, in Scotland. As featured on Bitterwallet.

Editor’s note (26th September 2014):
At the request of a Senior Outreach Executive from the lowcosttravel group, this post has been edited to remove the link to lowcostholidays.

I forgot to upload this yesterday – oops!

So yesterday’s photo-a-day is my Swimathon certificate. If you still haven’t sponsored me, please do! Marie Curie Cancer Care and I would be grateful for any donation, no matter how small. You can give at http://sjh.im/SimonSwim until 29th April 2012.

Thanks for your support!

I’m afraid my inner pedant got the better of me and couldn’t overlook another correspondent’s loose grip on reality last week, resulting in another letter published in my hometown rag, the Southport Visiter. Sorry for the geekiness: if you find it frustrating when letters myopically concentrate on the specifics of claims while ignoring the bigger issues, it’s probably best if you don’t click through.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UhYUVtDAWI

If you want to sponsor me and give some money to Marie Curie Cancer Care, you can do so at sjh.im/SimonSwim. Thanks for your support!

Weetslade Country Park is a landscaped former colliery site just minutes from my front door, yet today was the first time I’ve visited. It boats about 20 hectares of land, including a hill with an artistic sculpture; a reedbed; woodland areas; and a newborn highland cow, called “wee” Slade (see what they did there?)

Unfortunately, I saw little more than the bottom of the hill today, as the heavens opened ten minutes or so after I arrived. I was soaked to the skin, despite my trusty Ikea umbrella!

It looks like it would be lovely to visit when the sun’s out, so I’m sure I’ll be back soon!

This is part of the pretty Royal Quays Marina at North Shields. It’s built around the Victorian Albert Edward Dock, which was opened by Albert Edward himself, in 1884.