When I was younger, my nan used to buy my brother, my sister and me a liquorice selection box for Christmas, until one Christmas they seemed to no longer be sold. I was no less than amazed, therefore, to come across this in a shop… it’s almost exactly as I remember, though without the liquorice pipe which I guess isn’t considered a suitable present for kids these days!

M&S appear to have gone all-out with their Christmas decorations this year… After all, nothing says “Christmas” like a squirrel wearing a crown.

Glitzen is a 40ft tall reindeer. As tall as a house, she’s the tallest reindeer sculpture in the world. This is the third year she’s featured among the Metrocentre’s Christmas decorations, and this year, she has two children with her.

The scale of the sculpture is certainly arresting – far more so, actually, in person than in photographs. The frame is made of over 2km of aluminium, and the sculpture is decorated with over 10,000 fairy lights. I’ve no stats on the new baby ones, but you’ll notice from the picture that each is more than a storey tall.

It’s just slightly depressing to be seeing them in October!

An extra second photo to make up for forgetting last Sunday… and it’s the first snowfall of the season here in Newcastle! Dad predicted that it would arrive today… I think it’s the first year he’s accurately forecast it!

I don’t know what it was about this scene, but it felt oddly atmospheric: a closed down shop with the lights shining through the gauze of the rolled-down shutter, with (I assume) the remaining stock gathered at the back and the occasional staff member busying about.

I don’t know what the shop used to be, or why it has closed down, or why there are still people and things in it despite it looking like it’s been shut for a while… but it is a little bit of a sad sight. Perhaps a little depressing for a Friday night?!

You’d think they’d proofread for excessive, commas!

I’m celebrating tonight, as this letter arrived today to inform me that I’ve passed my Part B exam, and so earned membership of the Faculty of Public Health.

This is both scary and exciting on a couple of fronts: firstly, I’ve passed all the exams I need to pass to become a consultant in public health; secondly, for the first time since I was nine years old (the current age of my oldest nephew), I’ve no exams planned in the next twelve months. Or at all, for that matter.

It surely won’t be long until I end up like this:

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I’m now officially a flu-fighting super-doc, and hope that all of my clinical colleagues are similarly brilliant!

The evidence is clear: in randomised trials, care facilities with high uptake of flu vaccine amongst staff have been consistently shown to have significantly lower levels of flu-like illness and mortality. In the 2010/11 flu season, the UK saw 2,200 ITU admissions with flu, mostly in under-65s.

So do your bit, and get your jab!

This is the label from Wendy’s new jeans. If I bought clothes that had been extensively destroyed before I bought them, I’d be looking for a refund. Apparently, though, it makes these particular jeans more desirable!

I know I forgot to post a picture yesterday – it’s the Sunday curse striking again. I’ll post an extra photo to make up the numbers either later today or tomorrow.

I must have walked past this plaque on Osbourne Road in Jesmond tens or hundreds of times, yet never noticed it! Muriel Robb won the 1902 Wimbledon ladies’ single final in a match which was the longest on record at the time, beating Charlotte Sterry.