Signing off but saving the best for my book...

The government has its knickers in a twist again because it thinks too many over-50s are skiving off work.

The crime is that they have woken up, smelled the coffee and taken early retirement.

Shocking, I know.

But now I have to admit I am also joining those dastardly stay-at-homes.

This will be my final column for this magnificent organ as I take what is actually a belated retirement and disappear into the sunset.

It has, of course, been a blast which has been made all the more enjoyable by the motley crew of past and present colleagues and the badinage of readers.

My career got off to a wobbly start with my first review of an am-dram production where I may have been a little harsh on the thespians.

A missive soon winged its way to the editor with clear and precise instructions on what to do with that

“nasty Mr Nurden”.

I was also taught how to spell accommodation by a frustrated news editor who finally scrawled the word in indelible pen down the inside of my arm.

It took me a week of scrubbing to remove it but by then I knew the word had two Cs, two

Ms and it went from my elbow to my wrist.

I have also dabbled in the dark arts of PR as an NHS spin-doctor, really, and spent a stint trying to convince po-faced national news editors to write about Saturday morning kids’ TV.

It was a thankless task, but a great opportunity to rub shoulders with the likes of Gaby Roslin, Take That, the Spice Girls and Kylie.

I’m saving all those stories for the book. Oh, and I’ll be staying off Twitter after getting into a spot of bother with BBC TV news presenter Naga Munchetty and her shoes. Best not to Google it...

What do you think? Email kentishgazette@thekmgroup.co.uk

‘My career got off to a wobbly start with my first review of an am-dram production where I may have been a little harsh on the thespians...’