In 1959 my Josephine and I were married, and as thousands did and do, came to the Isle of Wight for our honeymoon - my first visit though Josie had been previously.

The nostalgia started immediately - the ferry was a paddle steamer!

Over the years we enjoyed several holidays here, bringing our children to caravan sites and the like.

When I retired in 1999 our son was living in Ryde and was very persuasive about our moving here; he posted us copies of the County Press property section (at that time the CP was broadsheet and HUGE).

And we did up-sticks and move to Ryde.

It became a habit of mine to write to the CP about local happenings or CP content and many of my letters were printed in the very lively correspondence section.

One year I sent a Christmas card to the editor, Alan Marriott, suggesting that the tabloid format would be more convenient and he replied with a card saying “Be careful what you wish for!”

It was obviously well in hand and happened a month or two later.

One of the letters I submitted bemoaned the fact that Daddies Sauce was becoming very hard to find; had the Daddies harvest failed world-wide?

Had the notorious sauce cabal cornered the market?

I hadn’t mentioned this to Josie, and she was baffled a few days later when she answered a knock at the door and found a smart young man presenting her with a bottle of Daddies.

This was reporter Richard Wright, at Alan’s request, and the poor guy did not even get a cup of tea out of it as I was at that time festooned with cables and trying to get sense out of a call-centre in India.

We were trying to fix a fault in my internet setup, and had been at it for about an hour.

When Alan invited eight people to write regular columns on subjects of their choice I was one of them and have been delighted to do so for seven years.

If you have detected a valedictory tinge to the above, you are correct.

Josie died a few years ago after we had enjoyed 61 years together.

I expect to move to the North island shortly to be closer to my son and daughter and families - to every thing there is a season - and column-wise, I think it right to make way for a younger (and probably, wiser) pen.

It has been a privilege and a pleasure to write for you. Thank you for reading me! And my best wishes to you all.