One of Britain's top echelon media leaders was in a Largs pub last week. No, it wasn't me, but I was there too.

I had met Caroline Waterston (pictured avec moi) some years before in a sunny square in Arroya de la Miel on the Costa del Sol, but at that point, she wasn't the editor-in-chief of Mirror Newspapers in London.

I had been visiting my old newspaper pal Norman, who happens to live all year round in the balmy warmth of Benalmadena, near the Spanish city of Malaga.

Little did we know that his little girl, from Kilwinning (the place of my birth), would rise through the newspaper ranks to have been appointed this year to one of the UK's leading media roles. 

Her job is the one that TV personality Piers Morgan held before entering the glitzy world of Britain's Got Talent judge and television presenter. Caroline tells me that she doesn't intend to follow his pathway to global stardom...but you never know.

Only days before I caught up with the down to earth Ayrshire lass in Largs, I had been listening to BBC Radio Four (see, madam, ah tellt ye ah wiz an intellectual) when up popped Caroline alongside another Scottish media giant, Andrew Neil, former editor of The Sunday Times, discussing newspapers in the run up to the General Election.

For those who are not political anoraks like yours truly, I should point out that the Mirror publications are what Caroline euphemistically describes as "left-leaning". The company is also responsible for the Conservative-supporting Daily Express, though that title has its own independent editor. So, sometimes the twain do meet, to misquote Rudyard Kipling. (No, not the one who makes the cakes.) 

I would love to reveal the inner workings of London's newspaper world, but I am sworn to secrecy.

Thought for the Week: Not all fairy stories begin "Once Upon A Time". Some begin with "If I'm elected I promise."

Talk of the town this week was the continuous need to be alert for scammers after the tried and tested text message was received as follows: "Hi, Mum, text me back once you save this number. I broke my phone earlier and I'm using this temp phone for now xx."

Last year, my daughter claimed to have dropped her phone down the toilet bowl - in Australia - and needed cash to replace it.  I realised it was a hoax.

The local mum who received the similar scam last week replied: "What's our code word?" 

She genuinely had a word that her family use to authenticate texts and messages. Clever.

Like most of you, I receive weekly emails warning that my account will be lost if I don't click a link, or a "friend" sending me photos that I should click to see.

However, there was a newer, and more sophisticated, scam attempted on me last week. I was phoned by a foreign gentleman who claimed to work for the O2 telephone company that I'm with.

I was to be a lucky customer receiving a 30 per centdiscount on my calls etc. He put me on to another foreign 'gentleman' who asked for my email so that I could accept the offer. 

When the email popped in he asked me to click on it.

I laughed, while saying "no, no, no, no...do you think my head buttons up the back?".  At that point he told me to "eff off" (or something like it) three times, and slammed the phone down.