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Thirty years ago, I was a Tony Robbins enthusiast. That’s when I started FireWalking! Yep, that’s right. Strolling barefoot across red-hot coals. The first venture, at one of Tony’s weekend Ra-Ra fests in London, was a mere 10 ft. in length. By the time I’d persuaded my long-suffering darling wife to join me, we had graduated to doing 25 ft. walks in Phoenix & Hawaii.

It all came flooding back when I saw that this same offer is being made to the good (but slightly crazy) folk of Wells, next April, to raise money for the eating disorder charity SWEDA. See the details below.

If you fancy the idea but are worried at the prospect of hot-footing it and coming off the worse - I’ll let you into a little secret. It looks scary, but it’s 98% safe and you won’t feel a thing.

The laws of physics are on your side. Although the “coals” (actually wood chips) are undoubtedly very hot their low rate of thermal conductivity means that, so long as you keep moving, the heat does not have the time to reach your feet. Your friends will be mightily impressed by your bravery and “mind-over-matter” control - but actually, it’s a walk in the park and mind control has nothing to do with it. Well, at least compared to a parachute jump, which you would never persuade me to do!

I did, however, say 98% safe. You still have to follow instructions and let them hose down your feet at the other side. The details are below with a link to sign up if you want to support the good cause and chalk up some kudos.

Paul

Six brand-new definitions, because the dictionary never closes:

Algorithm – The dancing style of a former vice-president.

Bidet – Two days before D-Day.

Culottes – Spend a lot of your life patiently standing in line.

Focussed – When someone says something particularly nasty about an enemy of theirs.

Towel – That Yorkshire bird that hoots.

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Nov 8th will be Remembrance Sunday. Wells was home to a very special war hero who died in 2009, aged 111.

Walk across Cathedral Green this week and you'll pass a five-tonne block of Doulting stone outside Wells and Mendip Museum. It's cut from the same quarry as the cathedral's west front, and the slate set into it begins with four words: "The Last Fighting Tommy".

Harry Patch was born at Combe Down, near Bath, in June 1898 and left school at 15 to become a plumber. He was called up in 1916 and sent to Flanders with the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, where he was the number two in a Lewis gun team. On 22 September 1917, during the Battle of Passchendaele, a shell burst above them. Harry was hit by shrapnel, and the same blast killed three of his closest friends.

He then said almost nothing about the war for 80 years. Only after he moved, at the age of 100, to Fletcher House care home in Wells did he begin to talk, and once he started, his message was blunt: "War isn't worth one life." In 2004 he travelled to Belgium to shake hands with Charles Kuentz, a veteran who had fought on the German side. Harry took him a bottle of Somerset cider.

Wells took him to its heart. The city made him a Freeman in 2008, and that autumn he launched the Poppy Appeal in Somerset. When he died at Fletcher House on 25 July 2009, aged 111, he was the last surviving soldier of any nation to have fought in the trenches. The cathedral bells rang 111 times for his funeral. Soldiers from Britain, France, Belgium and Germany walked with his coffin, and, at his request, none of them carried guns. Thousands stood on the Green in the pouring rain and applauded as the hearse left.

On Remembrance Sunday, 8 November, the city's civic service and parade is at St Cuthbert's Church from 9.45am. The cathedral's 10.30am Eucharist and Act of Remembrance ends with a procession to Harry's memorial to join the wider community. At 3pm, the Cathedral Choir sings Fauré's Requiem, followed by the traditional poppy drop. On Armistice Day, Wednesday 11 November, there is a two-minute silence at the war memorial in the cathedral's North Transept at 11am.

The Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal is under way in Wells now. Poppies are available from the city's supermarkets, Morrisons, Tesco and Waitrose. Collecting tins are out at many places in the city and beyond. You can also chat to Legion members at their stall on Wells Saturday market and donate by cash or card. The appeal runs until Armistice Day.

Over to you: did you meet Harry, or stand on the Green for his funeral? Hit reply and tell us what you remember.

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