Born in 1946 and brought up in Cupar, Fife, I was educated at the local school - 
A special visitor has delivered some Christmas spirit to Banffshire's army of postal workers during thei busiest time of the year.
Banff and Buchan MSP Stewart Stevenson turned up on an early-morning visit with a real winter warmer - a bottle of Scottish Parliament whisky.
But while the hard-working mem and women of the Royal Mail could be forgiven for enjoying a dram during a well-earned rest, not a drop touched their lips.
Staff at the Banff delivery office will instead use te gift from Mr Stevenson to raise money for charity.
Mr Stevenson popped into the office early on Friday morning to pass on his encouragement to the postal workers as they battle with huge sacks of Chistmas mail.
He was shown round by delivery office manager Ian Jackson, and met the men and women who have the task of getting the huge volumes of additional mail through letterboxes.
Mr Jackson said:
"Christmas is the busiest time of the year. Our people do really pull out all the stops throughout the year to ensure mail is delivered quickly, but even more so over the busy festive period, so we were pleased that Mr Stevenson came along to witness the hard work that goes on behind the scenes.
"The postal staff do a fantastic job at this time of year to ensure that friends and families stay in touch through their Christmas greetings and gifts.
"And as usual, we urge our customers to post early so that friends and family have longer to enjoy their Christmas greetings."
Although no figures are available solely for the Banffshire area, Royal Mail believes that the Christmas post bag across Scotland this year will amount to 200 milllion items.
Mr Stevenson said:
"It was great to meet the hard-working Royal Mail postmen and women at Banff delivery office and to see at first hand just how much effort they put into delivering for people at this time of year.
"Posties do such an important job at this time of year and I like to thank them for their efforts and wish them all the best over the busy festive period."
Karen Adam is now the MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast
