The day parliament came to Middlesbrough
An interesting - and perhaps unique - experience on Friday; Parliament coming to Middlesbrough.
The first - and possibly last - meeting of the Regional Grand Committee for the North East was an odd experience.
At one point, a member of the public wandered into the venue in Middlesbrough Town Hall with their weekly shopping - something I can't quite imagine happening in Westminster.
Its chairman Frank Cook warned us all sternly at the start to silence our mobile phones, only for his to go off in the middle of the meeting!
The whole idea though was to bring politics closer to the people.
And the meeting certainly discussed some of the issues that matter most to the region.
There were discussions about the future of the Redcar steelworks, the inadequacies of the A1, and the campaign to bring the Lindisfarne Gospels back to the North East.
But although the public could watch, none of them could ask a question.
That left 11 MPs - 10 Labour and 1 Liberal Democrat - to put regional minister Nick Brown through his paces.
Sir Alan Beith, the one Opposition voice, tried his best, but was frequently ganged up upon by the Labour MPs.
So worthwhile exercise or waste of money? You can see more here, and let me know by posting a comment.
But at least I may have witnessed a little bit of history.
The Conservatives are unlikely to persist with the Grand Committee if they win the next election, making its visit to Middlesbrough a curiosity.
So I may get a souvenir T-shirt printed - "I was there when Parliament came to the 'Boro."
Anyway, I'm heading off to Brighton now for the Labour Conference, full of the man flu germs donated to me by the Liberal Democrats in Bournemouth..
Unlike some of the Labour party I haven't "lost the will to live" quite yet though.
I'll be blogging regularly and you can follow every cough, splutter and tweet on Twitter.
I'm hoping for a sea air cure to my malaise. Let's see whether it can help Labour mount a recovery too.
I'm Richard Moss, the BBC's Political Editor for the North East and Cumbria. Welcome to my irreverent - but hopefully insightful - northern take on reporting politics for Look North and the Politics Show. 
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