Peter Rhodes on greeting Staffies, having your feet tickled and bidding farewell to the Tornado

AND off into town to meet a lady who tickles your feet for thirty quid. The chiropodist (for it is she) was trying to find out why my left big toe suddenly went crock. Thankfully, she doesn't think it's gout which is an agonising and debilitating disease made worse by everybody assuming it is vaguely comical and you probably deserve it for drinking too much port.

ANYWAY, as with so many ailments, mine cured itself some hours before the appointment and she filled in the time with a full de-corning, nail-clipping and giggle-inducing nail filing. I cannot think when I've felt so pampered.

ON the way home I paused to say hello to a huge grey Staffordshire bull terrier called Harry. I always chat to Staffies on the grounds that most people seem to give them a wide berth which means they (the Staffies, not the people) rarely get their ears tickled by strangers. According to the recent poll for Britain's Favourite Dogs (ITV), Staffies are the nation's favourite breed. I'm not entirely convinced.

HAD to smile at one newspaper's summary of the also-rans in the TV doggie contest which claimed that labradors "can be taught how to do anything." Except, of course, how to ignore cakes.

PEDANT corner. A reader says as I used GSOH (Good Sense Of Humour) in capital letters, then my reference to Nasa should have been in capitals, too. Allow me to unveil one of the innermost secrets of this inky world of ours. It is something called The Style Book and it ensures that everyone working for the same publication follows the same rules of spelling, punctuation and so on. The Style Book tells us that if initials are spoken as initials (USA, IRA, GSOH, etc) then they are written as initials. However, if the initials are usually spoken as a word (Nato, scuba, Nasa, etc) they are written as a word. And the reason The Style Book gets capital letters is because its importance was branded into our youthful minds all those years ago by large, hairy-knuckled sub-editors wielding steel rulers.

AFTER 40 years in service the Tornado is finally being retired from the RAF. The official line is that it was a fine aircraft, beloved by all. I think back to December 1990 and the tense days just before the First Gulf War erupted. I was in a media party joining the Tornado crews in Bahrain for dinner. The RAF crews had spent weeks preparing for their missions in the Gulf, flying alongside swarms of bigger, faster and seemingly invincible US F-15 warplanes.

WHEN the meal was over the chap from the BBC spoke. He asked whether there was anything the RAF men needed. I suspect he had in mind the traditional "soldiers' comforts" such as socks or Marmite. Instead, to a chorus of approval, one RAF pilot replied: "F-15s, please." The RAF trains the best pilots in the world. Whether they always get the best kit is for history to decide.