I am hoping to see Sunderland move up the table and keep their Premiership status – they are my second team and, I know you won’t like this, Newcastle are my third, from my time at Newcastle University many years ago when universities were universities and real coffee was luxurious. I can still remember going down the Bigg Market to Pumphreys for a coffee and apple pie with cream – a quaint little coffee shop with railway carriage style string luggage racks above the seats (you need to have sat on Steam trains with their individual carriages to understand what I mean!) in which they placed the daily papers for you to read. I think the coffee shop is long gone now but Pumphreys is still about and selling coffee.

I wonder if you have started a HasBean dynasty that will still be going in 250 years time? That’s a scary thought (not that HasBean will be around for so long – hopefully it will – but just contemplating two centuries passing by and one’s name still being remembered!)

Anyway – must get my expresso machine repaired so I can start the orders rolling in again – anyone know where I can get spare sparts for a Francis Francis X1?