We are days from March and already it feels spring-like, sunny and bright. And if you need to buy oil for the chillier moments, that is now cheaper too.

The former Boyzone pop star Shane Lynch has opened a perfume shop in Ballymena. Helen McGurk has interviewed him.

In opinion, Owen Polley today says it is all well to say unionists should be positive but they need not to concede important details.

In my column I say that a neglected aspect  of commentary on Sir Jeffrey Donaldson's emotional Westminster speech last month is that he attacked fellow unionists, not his relentless critics of the last two years: nationalists, government leaders, and so on.

Sandra Chapman is retiring as a columnist. I can only say that I hoped she would stay and we will miss her.

I don't follow football much now, there is so much else in life to follow. But as a boy I did and aged 10 I got Chris Nicholl's autograph and indeed all of the Northern Ireland World Cup hero team in 1982. How sad that Chris is dead.

Talking of childhood memories, the former Safari Park in north Antrim is looking for recollections. Mine is of its roller coaster, which I am sure was bigger than the one in this pic! - perhaps it was a later version.

In biking, here is a Kyle White on Jonathan Rea vowing to regroup after the Yamaha World Superbike debut ends with crash at Phillip Island

With best wishes until my next message.

Ben