Jan 25 2007 Brainstorm, shoes. L and M

Away day yesterday looking at finding new ideas to drive Echo sales. All regional newspapers have had a tough time of it in recent years as free newspapers and multi media have taken bites out of their traditional market.

The Echo has fared better than most but it's a struggle and the need for constant innovation is overpowering.

Good day. Took a meeting room overlooking the pitch at Anfield and a dozen of us put towels over our heads (not literally) and tried to think of ways of turning the trends on their heads.

After warm-up sessions and some fun it boiled down to two angles of attack: How do we make the Echo easier to get and how do we make it more of a must-have product.

From the wild, the wacky, the been-there-tried it, and the sounds-good-but..we emerged with eight solid propositions which we'll be refining into projects.

Key points: brainstorming works best when people are relaxed and enjoying themselves. And it works best out of the office away from the day-to-day slog.

Dashed across Merseyside to buy new training shoes at Runners Sports in New Ferry. Superb customer service considering I arrived minutes before closing time. Really knowlegeable assistant.

She looked at my old trainers with some dismay. 'Inferior' was the nicest thing she could say. I thought they were rather splendid.

Bought great new pair and did six miles when I got home. Could feel a huge difference.

After that couple of hours work then then bed.

Only 10 days to Thailand. Had the jabs. Lynne up and down but seemed better yesterday. I think she is worrying herself sick about the journey. I'm still unsure whether she's well enough, but neither of us want to pull out at this stage.

Morgan off school with cough, cold, temperature. She's furious. 'I want to go to school,' she yelled. Harry speechless at her attitude.