Peter Rhodes, who writes a daily column in Wolverhampton’s Express & Star, stirred up a few memories the other day with a short piece on the Millennium Bug and the remarkable fact that despite all the prophecies of doom leading up to the turn of the century, nothing much went wrong on the IT front.
I was involved in the MNA’s Millennium committee and we worked over a fairly long period to try to ensure all the bad stuff stayed away. From my point of view it was largely “hey, we work on Macs, what’s the issue?”, but that can hardly be construed as teamwork, can it.
Well, in the end, nothing much did happen and I spent a very enjoyable few minutes as the 20th Century slipped away, watching a fabulous fireworks display from the top of the Express & Star building in Queen Street, Wolverhampton.
All you could see for miles was fireworks. As I wrote to Peter, if that’s what armageddon is going to look like, make sure you get a good seat.

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Things past and things to come are very much on my mind at the moment.
I can hardly believe it’s two years since RCWMedia peeped sheepishly into the world, mainly to help PCS out with developing their new content management system, which at the time wasn’t even commissioned and certainly didn’t have a name.
It did get commissioned, it’s now called Knowledge, it’s being rolled out at the Midland News Association and what’s more, it’s going big-time public for the first time at the end of February at Publishing Expo at Olympia.
Being involved in this sort of project is really exciting, particularly for those of us who have spent much of the last 10 years looking for ‘the next big thing’ and the almost legendary ‘end to end publishing system’. PCS think they have something special to show the publishing industry - and that’s not just newspapers, by the way. Let’s hope the industry agrees.
February 24 and 25 are the dates, Olympia 2 the venue and PCS are on stand A54. There’s a bit more info from the link on the left and if you want to see it close up you should talk to stand manager Michelle McClure at PCS (+44 (0) 1902 374757) to book a slot.

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A couple of friends from way back have recently (or not-so recently) launched magazines in very different spheres.

Mike Berry used to be the doyen of Minor Counties Cricket writers and, for all I know, could still be. He is now co-publisher of Backpass, a retro footy magazine. The link’s on the right.

Only recently discovering that Mike was involved in the mag, it revived a couple of memories…

Many years ago we were at the cowfield end of Wellington’s beautiful Orelton Park ground watching a Shropshire game. I can’t remember the opposition, but the situation arose that Shropshire needed a six off the last ball to win the game, with seam bowler Andy Barnard at the crease.

I suggested that Barney, who had form in that area having slapped a mighty six off the last ball of Shrewsbury’s innings in the William Younger Cup final against Hastings and St Leonards Priory in 1983, might do it again. Berry scoffed and, in front of no less a luminary than Eleanor Oldroyd, who went on to become the ‘First Lady of Fighting Talk’ on Radio 5 Live among other things, offered to shin up the sightscreen naked if Barnard obliged.

Barney duly did, but all these years later we’re still waiting for Berry to fulfil his wager. He claims to have done it already and says he can’t understand where mine and Ellie’s invitation got to.

Still, what can you expect from a man who in his younger days bore an uncanny resemblance to Ian Botham and once spent a whole afternoon signing autographs for a string of starstruck youngsters in the pavilion at Newport Cricket Club…

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The other new mag is Shropshire Kitchen, produced by former Express & Star features sub Eluned Watson and her friend Tara Mabbott. It’s a bold first venture, offering news on food, drink and lifestyle for the Shropshire area.

The magazine will be quarterly, I think and aims to showcase all that’s good about foodishness in Shropshire which, after all, has a pretty good reputation in the culinary world as it is.

You’d have thought Ellie had enough on her plate bringing up a four and a two-year-old, but she’s a smart cookie and a lovely lady who deserves to succeed. More from the link on the right.

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Finally, thanks to a mate who works in Air Traffic at Birmingham Airport for this gem:

During the recent cold snap when UK airports were closing faster than Woolworths stores on a high street, Birmingham became the safe haven where scores of planes ended up, parked nose to tail on taxiways having been diverted.

Turns out that while most of the flyboys took the inconvenience in good spirits, one pilot from an un-named non-uk budget airline with a reputation for innovative additional charging ideas became a little grumpy when he couldn’t get to the stand he insisted that he’d been allocated.

With all channels between the assembled aircraft and tower open, it was left to one of his colleagues to dismiss the moan in the style of the complainant’s own airline:  “Maybe you should have paid the parking supplement then”. Cue hilarity all round.