Annie Walter with her lambs. (0545097)

AURIGNY’S 40th birthday provides me with the perfect opportunity to mention what the airline does for its island namesake.

Started in Alderney in 1968, it does a lot of good here, in particular the emergency medical evacuations that have helped many people over the years.

But the main thing Aurigny has to boast about in Alderney is its staff. It’s always people who make or break a business and these must be the nicest airport employees in the world.

Two of my favourites are ‘The Steves’, a double act that comprises Steve Parilla and Steve Roberts.

They work together on the front desk and fish together at other times (you may remember they took Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall out low-water fishing two summers ago).

Like so many other Alderney people they’re always prepared to help out and keen to share a joke and see the funny side of things.

The other day someone told me the reason why Aurigny planes are yellow and white. Apparently it is because those were the colours in which founder Sir Derrick Bailey’s horses always raced.

Fair enough. Anyone who has reached a gallop on a horse will probably have felt they were going faster than a Trislander trying to take off.

His wife, Annie, said that despite his fearsome reputation, the colonel was a gentle midwife and is very taken with the furry little bundles of joy.

The couple have a smallholding behind the airport and their ewes have so far given birth to three lambs, including the twins pictured here, which were born on 21 February.

Two more of the couple’s ewes are due to lamb any day and plenty of local people have been to see the spring lambs running around the field.

They are as yet unnamed but would suit Mint and Sauce.

Having written this column and edited the Alderney Journal for two years, it’s time for me to move on.

I’m not sure how many people have actually stuck with this column all the way through. There were the dodgy stories about ghosts in the Chez Andre and the blatant summer self-promotion which saw me abuse my position to rise through the ranks of the Alderney cricket team.

I know that for all the rivalries there are lots of Alderney people in Guernsey and plenty of Guernsey people who love Alderney.

It’s been an honour and a privilege to write for those people and I wish you and the island all the best in future.