Well, yesterday afternoon was a very exciting occasion for the city of Nottingham - as at 1pm, an eight-foot bronze statue of the late great Brian Clough was finally unveiled in the city centre.

Now most of you reading this will probably be well aware of the fact that this statue has been a big part of my life over the last few years.

Having grown up as a Nottingham Forest fan, you see - and being of the generation that I am - it probably goes without saying really that Cloughie has always been my biggest hero.

And a few months after his sad death back in 2004, I was part of a small group of people who decided there needed to be a lasting tribute to him in Nottingham - to mark everything he did for the city during his 18 years as Forest manager between 1975 and 1993.

We duly decided to set up a fundraising committee, and embarked on a mission to get £70,000 for a statue of the great man. And the project very quickly took over our lives for the best part of a four year period…

Yesterday though, the people of Nottingham finally get to see the fruits of all our hard work at an all-singing all-dancing unveiling ceremony.

And with the school where I work having very kindly agreed to let me have a day of unpaid leave, I was there too!

Needless to say, it was an incredibly proud and emotional day for those of us who were so heavily involved in the fundraising for the statue. Indeed, I’m struggling to find the words to describe how it all felt.

One thing I will say though is that Nottingham City Council did an absolutely fantastic job of organising the unveiling.

With us having approached the council right at the start of the statue project to ask for their support, the deal had always been that if we raised the money, they’d guarantee finding a prominent location for it in the city centre - and also take care of the logistics of getting it actually erected and unveiled.

Happily, they were more than true to their word, pulling out all the stops for us.

As well as pretty much the entire Clough family, the team who organised the unveiling managed to arrange for a who’s who of great players who played for Forest during the Clough era to be present – as well as current Forest manager Colin Calderwood and his entire squad.

A crowd of several thousand people turned out as well, and it was all quite a spectacle really.

Cometh the hour, it was Cloughie’s wife Barbara who did the honours of removing a green cloth to give the assembled crowds their first glimpse of the statue.

And happily, the general consensus was pretty much unanimous – that it looks stunning!

Needless to say, the moment the cloth was removed saw a massive media scrum – and you can see loads of photos and videos of the unveiling online.

A video can be seen by clicking here; meanwhile, a selection of really good photos can be seen by clicking here.

I’ve also uploaded a selection of snaps that took myself. If you’re reading these ramblings on my blog site, www.softbulletin.co.uk, simply go to my gallery section ti view these.

If, on the other hand, you’re reading this on Facebook, simply click here to be redirected.

Of course though, those of you who live in Nottingham can easily go and check out the statue for yourselves.

If you’re in the city centre and want to go and have a look, you will find it just up from Market Square, at the bottom of the ‘V’ where King and Queen Street meet.

I must say, I’m quite looking forward to the fact that, when I arrange to meet people in the city centre, I can now say “See you by Cloughie..”

Well, yesterday saw me return to work in earnest, after last week’s school half-term holiday.

And I must say, I feel it’s done me the world of good having had a proper break for the first time seemingly in ages.

For the last few days before we broke up for half-term, I did feel like I was pretty much running on empty.  

However, following a week in which I largely did sod all, I now feel like I’m firing on all cylinders again.

That said, I’ve got my class working on something really interesting this week…which always helps you feel to feel energised.

We’re looking at a true story – and a pretty topical one too!

Yes, we’ve been learning about Guy Fawkes and the story behind Bonfire Night!

Naturally, anything to do with fire and stuff being blown up is always a surefire way of capturing children’s imagination.

And yesterday afternoon saw one of those brilliant moments in the classroom that was far more ironic than anything in that bloody Alanis Morrisette song!

Having got them familiar with the basics of the Gunpowder Plot, I was leading my class in a discussion about what they thought the King should’ve done with Guy Fawkes after he was caught.

Just as we were getting a lively debate going though, we were stopped in our tracks by - of all things – a fire drill!

Needless to say, it was one of those situations where you are obligated to remain very po-faced.

After all, you have a room full of children who are naturally quite excited about the possibility that the school might actually be about to go up in flames… and yet it’s your responsibility to get them outside in a calm and orderly manner.

Yet inwardly, I couldn’t help but laugh…

It’s strange, but this week has seemed to be all about fire.

As well as the fact that it’s Bonfire Night this week, something happened yesterday that got me reminiscing for the first time in ages of a great story from my very early childhood – namely, the night when a minor TV star almost burnt down our house!

Yes, when I was a toddler back in the early 1980s, my mum and dad used to live in a different house to the one they live in now. And across the road from us were a really cool family called the Mitchells.

Now the Mitchells had children who were a bit older than my brother Al and me – and the eldest son, Julian, would sometimes come over and babysit for us when my mum and dad went out.

And as babysitters went, Julian was pretty much as cool as it got.

From a very young age, you see, Julian had always been a bit of a performer. And around the time when he was regularly employed by my mum and dad to keep tabs on Al and me, he had a bit of a break - when he landed a part in a TV programme called ‘Murphy’s Mob’!

Those of you who were a certain age may remember Murphy’s Mob – it was a sort of sub-Grange Hill drama that was on children’s TV in the mid-1980s. You can actually see clips from it on YouTube.

Naturally, in a humdrum neighbourhood in Nottingham, having a bona fide TV star in our midst was deeply exciting!

At the time, we were just about the only family on our road who had a video recorder – and so it was our job to make sure we recorded each episode of Murphy’s Mob to ensure Julian’s proud mum and dad had a copy.

So how did Julian almost come to raze our house to the ground?

Well, it all happened one night he was babysitting for Al and me – when, having managed to get the two of us off to bed, Julian decided to go into the kitchen and make himself some toast.

However, our erstwhile babysitter made the fatal error of switching on the grill without having noticed that a tea towel had been left on top of it!

And naturally, the thing very quickly caught fire!

Fortunately, Julian reacted quickly. He managed to control the inferno – and beyond a singed ceiling, no harm was done.

Of course, having survived this dramatic near-death situation, Al and I went on to grow up into the splendid young men that we are today.

Happily, Julian’s career also continued to go from strength to strength – and though my family and his has largely drifted out of contact with each other over the years, I’ve always tried to keep tabs on whatever he’s up to.

Following Murphy’s Mob, Julian went on to star in various other TV programmes – and then later decided to step the other side of the camera and move into directing.

Around eight or nine years ago, Julian directed a film called ‘House’ - a comedy about a struggling bingo hall in Wales, starring the actress Kelly McDonald… who is probably best known for having played the part of schoolgirl Diane in Danny Boyle’s film adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s ‘Trainspotting’.

At it was, ‘Smash’ wasn’t a huge box office smash.

In fact, when I went to see it at the cinema one wet afternoon in Liverpool – where I was living at the time – I had the entire screen tio myself!

Nevertheless, I felt incredibly proud of Julian.

I mean, making a film and actually getting a cinema release is no mean feat…

I must say, I haven’t really heard much about Julian in recent years in terms of what he’s been up to.

However, as I said earlier, I did find myself thinking about him yesterday evening. And that’s because I happened to attend an event organised to help raise money for The Television Workshop - an organisation that played a big part in helping Julian on his way to success in the world of acting.

Now the Television Workshop is an organisation which, in its own words, “develops and trains young actors through regional drama workshops in Nottingham, Birmingham and Leeds”.

Over the years, it has been a veritable conveyor belt of talent - with many of its students, Julian being just one of them, having gone on to enjoy considerable success in the world of TV.

Sadly though, times recently have been hard for the Television Workshop. Over the years, the organisation has only survived through funding from TV networks and grants from organisations such an the National Lottery.

Alas though, in these current tough economic times, funding is becoming increasingly difficult to come by – and as a consequence, the future of the Television Workshop is actually in serious jeopardy.

Which is a real shame.

Last night however, an event was held in Nottingham to raise much-needed funds for the Television Workshop – an ‘Evening with…’ type event with someone who Is almost certainly the organisation’s best-known former student… the Nottingham-born actress Samantha Morton.

I decided to go along to the event, and it was a great evening.

Ms Morton was utterly charming, and incredibly down-to-earth for someone who has worked alongside everyone from Steven Spielberg to Tom Cruise. She even gave me some advice on how to get the children in my class at school a bit more excited about drama and performing.

I shall write a bit more about what Ms Morton had to say for herself another time.

In the meantime though, if any of you want to know a bit more about the Television Workshop, click here to visit their website…