"Only connect" said E M Forster, and this week's connection came between two events over 250 miles apart, in Eaglescliffe and Knightsbridge.

Last Friday, I had the very pleasant task of compering the awards ceremony for NETA at Eaglescliffe's Oakwood Centre on a day when a lot of hard work was rewarded in front of a large audience of trainees, proud families and industry partners.

In case NETA is new to you, it was set up in 1975 offering quality training for engineering construction companies, and, since then, it has built up a very strong reputation and spread its field to a wide area including the hospitality industry and call centre training. Engineering is still at the centre of its activities, and they spread the Teesside skills message internationally, including special partnerships with the Middle and Far East. Speaking on Friday, Chief Executive Frank Ramsay was rightly proud of the outfit and its recent award of Centre of Vocational Excellence status by the Government. These "COVE" awards are hard to come by and are part of the drive to produce world class workforces. Happily Darlington College of Technology and Hartlepool College of Further Education have also received this status for their own specialisms, and it's good news for our patch which needs trumpeting loudly.

Guest speaker at the NETA event was Dari Taylor, the Stockton South MP, and she spoke with some passion about the need to remind the high level decision makers of what our patch has to offer. On the lighter side of life we became mistily nostalgic in conversation about the Sixties when Dari and I were both students in Nottingham and Leeds respectively.

My "only connect" moment with the Sixties came when I was in London yesterday. By a marvellous stroke of luck, I had some free time between business meetings which co-incided with a rather special auction at Bonham's in Knightsbridge. The morning papers had features about a huge collection of Stuart Sutcliffe memorabilia going under the hammer and I just couldn't resist being there. I'm sure you know of the legend of the "fifth Beatle", and the influence of his work and that of German photographer Astrid Kirchherr on the phenomenon which became the Beatles look and sound. I arrived just in time for the Sutcliffe items to be up for auction and there was one item which I set my heart on - a simple black and white portrait of Sutcliffe taken by Astrid herself. Despite my lack of auction expertise, I waited a while and then joined the bidding - and am now a unique photograph's proud owner! It even has the "provenance" of a proper auction house to prove it's the real thing. I've convinced myself it's an investment really, but, once I've put it in a proper frame, it will sit over this desk to provide steady inspiration.

Let's end with a final parting shot in praise of the real shining lights. Also on yesterday's auction list was a job lot of Spice Girls' ephemera (just the right word!) which, after skilful pleading from the auctioneer, went for £10. Stuart Sutcliffe's sketch books were going for thousands. Enough said.

Published: 30/07/2003