Quite a few years ago now, I got to realise that life won`t go on forever however much I might like it to.  I don`t know why but the reality suddenly dawned on me and I became aware of my own mortality.  And that prompted me to reassess a few things and one of the less appealing was to consider how (rather than when) I might choose to kiss this crazy world goodbye.

I considered a number of options, some rather touching, others perhaps bordering on the bizarre but in the end it came down to a choice between two conflicting but compelling alternatives.  The first was to part company on the golf course, ideally having just birdied the notoriously difficult par 5 fourth hole at Poult Wood Golf Course - always a difficult place to go to.  In all the years I hacked my way around that course I don`t think I ever parred that hole, so to expire with a birdie in the hand would be a fitting tribute to my golfing inadequacy.   Won`t happen now, of course - my dodgy knee has seen to that.  Oh well

The second choice naturally involved Southampton Football Club which I have followed assiduously since my father first took me to The Dell in 1946, when I was seven.  I began to think how fitting it would be for me to expire gracefully just as the Saints beat Manchester United in the Champions League Final at Wembley but I soon settled for them to be heading the Premier League table, leaving the rest of English football floundering in their wake.

At 10.00 pm or thereabouts on Friday evening, Southampton were top of the Premier League, having beaten Newcastle United 2-0 with a deserved victory and that was the first time in 32 years that the Saints had achieved the pinnacle of the top flight of English football (the Premier League hadn`t been invented then, so it was the old First Division.)

But now as I write Leicester City have just beaten Wolves to dislodge the Saints from top spot - in fact, as Spurs have also won this afternoon, the Saints have now slumped to third in the table.   But those 42 hours at the top were in one way piquant, precious and sumptuous;  but in another left me wondering whether the excitement of it all might actually have made my chosen departure manifest itself.

Thankfully, nothing untoward happened, my heart rate has returned to normal and I`m still here, as you might deduce from the fact that I`m writing this.  So my two initial choices have come and gone and I had better think of a few more departure lounges that might appeal - but perhaps I had better avoid golf and football and turn my mind to something else.  Oh well.