We’re all going to lose a few pounds in 2020. It’s a simple statement – I’m just not sure whether it’s a resolution or a prediction and whether that’s pounds in weight or pounds, shillings and pence…

I am so very lucky. I nearly didn’t check my ‘junk e-mail’ folder over Christmas. And if I hadn’t, I’d never have known that the Federal Government of Nigeria had allocated me a compensation payment of 5.5 million dollars…

Dear Father Christmas, this year I have been very good. Or quite good… sort of. It depends whether you hold racecourse managers to the same moral standard as bishops or something more akin to American presidents, in which case almost anything goes…

Having stayed up late watching the election coverage, I’m flagging. Not flag-waving you understand, because there’s been enough of that on racecourses recently. No, I’m feeling tired – mainly of the discussion about using flags and whistles to prematurely halt races.

Father Christmas knows who’s naughty and who’s nice.

Fortunately, when he attends the Festive Family Raceday at Kelso Racecourse on Sunday he won’t need to waste any time referring to his list – because we only let nice people in.

Following last week’s exciting announcement, about the resurrection of the Tote’s ten to follow competition, it seems that all of the Border Post’s readers have decided to write in at once. I’ve been inundated with messages and fortunately both of you wanted to know the same thing:

If this blog hath offended,
Think but this and all is mended:
That you have but slumber’d here
While these visions did appear.

You know that you’ve been invited to a night to remember when, before you’ve even got there, the host sends you a sachet of Alka-Seltzer and a 5cl bottle of whisky for the morning after.

That was Thursday’s 10th annual RCA Showcase Awards Night, staged at Hamilton Park.

It’s easy to forget, when you have four taps and a water closet in every bathroom (and frequently more than one bathroom plus a kitchen in every house), just how important it used to be to have a well.

The life-giving properties of a stable water-source enabled communities to develop and grow, giving rise to place names like Camberwell, Southwell and Fontwell…

So hectic were the plot lines in the recently released Downton Abbey movie, I wondered whether the makers had taken the script for an eight-week series and thought, “The public are getting a bit bored with all this, why don’t we get it over in a couple of hours.”

Maybe they did, because if there’s a trend in the world of entertainment at the moment it’s a drive towards shorter formats…