Game old birds and the spice of life

Last week's blog featured a good old-fashioned whinge about how things were far better in the "good old days" when I was a cub reporter.

You would have been forgiven for getting a mental image of me as a wrinkled, jaded old hack who started out in the old hot metal days.

Or you would if my mug wasn't splattered all over the pages of the Trib!

Well, only the jaded part is really true, what with me being a youthful 33 and relatively wrinkle-free.

The good thing about this job, though, is that no matter how cynical you get - and believe me, the levels can get pretty high - there's always something waiting round the corner to give you a bit of a lift.

Variety is not just the spice of life, it's also what makes this job so cool. You never know what is going to happen from day to day.

So while some things can be predicted - like bashing in press releases or doing our daily round of morning calls to the emergency services - others cannot.

This week there was a perfect example of why I love this job so much.

It's all about the people who make our communities so fascinating and sometimes you meet someone new who makes a big impression.

Gwen Johnson is a perfect example.

"Game old bird" might sound like an insult, but it suits her perfectly.

The Atherstone pensioner waited until her 80th birthday to make a point about the value of the older generation.

On checking she had actually got her staggeringly generous 25p extra in her pension, she promptly dug out the right change from her purse and sent it off to the chancellor, Alistair Darling.

Her message was, simply, stuff it.

I had a long chat with Gwen about her gesture, and game old bird just sums her up.

I hope I'm as feisty, forthright and opinionated as she is when, god willing, I get to her age.

I've got a pretty good chance - my mother's as game an old bird as they come, and they say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree!