On Parade - with John Hendrie

 ’Tis the season to be merry and that means going along to plenty of Christmas dinners.

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve been to the one organised by the north-east football writers, another at the Royal Armouries in Leeds and a couple in Bradford at the Hilton and Cedar Court.

So obviously I’ve been getting a wee bit of stick for the amount of food I’ve been tucking away.

The other day, Deano and I got asked to turn on the Christmas lights at a house in Wrose. The owner Peter Downes does a special display in aid of the Marie Curie Hospice. Deano had to flick the switch on at one end while I did the other.

Deano’s missus Helen was there and said she’d put an extra tenner in the bucket if he got blown up.

But Deano looked at me and said: “Don’t worry about John. After all those dinners, somebody has already blown him up!”