ONE of the talking points of this week has been our exclusive story about Durham's Police and Crime Commissioner, Ron Hogg, declaring that the force would no longer be actively pursuing small-scale cannabis users.

It led this morning to a call from Danny Savage, from the BBC, asking if I knew "a friendly local grower" who'd be willing to talk.

What kind of circles do they think I mix in?

IT wasn't my best piece of planning – agreeing to be after-dinner speaker at the Durham Soroptomists annual dinner the night after the general election.

As any journalist will tell you, there's not much sleep to be had on election night so I turned up at Ramside Hall feeling like death warmed up.

Nevertheless, a promise is a promise and the engagement was duly fulfilled. This week, I received a lovely email from Vyvyenne Mack, confirming that the grand sum of £481.20 had been raised in lieu of my fee and the cheque has been sent to the Butterwick Children's Hospice.

It seems a long time ago now, and the night's a bit of a blur, but thank you to the Durham Soroptomists for their generosity.

WHEN I heard that Methodists in Barnard Castle were staging a display of knitted scenes from the Bible, I made it the subject of the daily Headline Challenge in which BBC Tees listeners try to come up with a better headline than the one printed in the Echo.

Our headline was "The Father, The Son and The Woolly Ghost" but BBC Tees claimed the points with "Knitivity".

I've received an email from a reader saying the Echo "should be ashamed of itself" for making light of the Bible.

Apologies if anyone else was offended but I'd be very disappointed if God didn't have a sense of humour.