Time flies ..

There's a pub at the end of the runway at Manchester Airport and it's one of my favourite places to go! I've been drinking there for years and years. A good pint of Guinness and the kerosene waft of a Boeing Triple Seven as it taxis towards the threshold. Heaven!..

Well, heaven just got better. The Airport Pub's been 'done up', and a visit there yesterday was my first time back since the refurbishment. Like, wow! It's absolutely changed beyond all recognition - well, apart from the fact that jet planes still keep whizzing in front you every few minutes! It's got an amazing aviation theme to it now - surprise, surprise - with great food and a really good buzz to it. Add to that the gorgeous sunshine yesterday - and a get-together with one of my oldest journo pals - and it made for the most perfect of Easter Sundays. This is my mate, by the way, snapping the pub's star draw - the Emirates A380 - as it trundled down towards us before take-off..

Of course, despite all the aviation excitement, our conversation inevitably drifted back to 'the old days' when we both began working on newspapers together, and he reminded me of the time a Boeing 737 caught fire on the runway. He worked for BBC Radio Manchester by this time, and was the first reporter on the scene of that horrible accident. That, folks, was 30 years ago this year! I then told him my story of the time I'd brought a girl to the pub, one warm Sunday afternoon exactly - as the newspapers reminded us this week - 25 years ago. Half way through a pint, my bleeper went off and I dropped everything - including, I blush to say, the girl! - and headed off back to work. It seems a riot had started at Strangeways Prison..