THAT Robbie Williams is going to dine out on this story for years. "You'll never guess who I met on holiday," you can imagine him telling Kylie and Britney at the next music awards ceremony. "Only Barnitts' boss Ian Thompson!"

Ian, managing director of the independent hardware store in York's Colliergate, was snapped by the paparazzi taking a dip off the coast of Barbados with Robbie this week.

The picture was splashed all over the centre spread of yesterday's Daily Star. Unfortunately, all we could see of Ian was the back of his head.

"Maybe it's the best part of me," he laughed from his Barbados hotel room.

Robbie, Ian explained, was staying in a villa neighbouring the hotel where he is holidaying with his wife Maureen.

"We have had quite a few conversations. He's a very pleasant young man."

Ian has been helping the former Take That singer to avoid the attention of the photographers.

"To be quite honest, he's been chased by the paparazzi. He avoids them as much as he can."

At one point, he spotted the long lens brigade and warned the star, who hid in the bushes.

So has Ian informed Robbie of the latest bargains at Barnitts?

"We haven't talked any work. It's been purely what he's been doing, what he's going to be doing, general conversation."

They have also chatted about football, although Robbie's famous passion for Port Vale was not mentioned.

"We were talking about him playing football, rather than football teams. He plays in a lot of charity matches which he quite enjoys because they allow him to score goals!"

Now the big question - can we expect Robbie to visit Barnitts in the near future?

"We haven't exchanged addresses or even got free tickets to a show," Ian confessed.

u STICKING to my self-imposed stricture of always avoiding the obvious, here is my Found And Lost column.

Tessa, the five-year-old springer spaniel stolen from outside Costcutter in York's Bishopthorpe Road, is found and back home after nine nail-biting days for her doting owners, Geoff and Jenny Walker.

Lucy is lost, but we'll get to that in just a mo.

Missing posters, many with Tessa's picture, were posted all over York after she was dog-napped while Geoff bought groceries.

And it could not have come at a worse time for the Walkers. The day before, November 3, they had been evacuated from their Lower Ebor Street home because of the Great York Floods. Then the following day Tessa was taken at exactly 4.20pm after passers-by spotted a lad in a fawn fleece and baseball cap leaning over her outside the shop.

The Walkers were beside themselves with worry.

"During the nine days Tessa was missing, I went up to my allotment 14 times and spent ages just calling her name. I often take her there, you see. I drove all over York looking for her," says Geoff in a voice still tremulous with anxiety despite having Tessa back by his side in the cosy Cygnet pub in Price Street.

Jenny recalls: "It was a nightmare time for us what with the evacuation, flood fears and then losing Tessa.

"It was my birthday on November 5 but it meant nothing, not while Tessa was missing," she says.

Geoff chips in: "By the eighth day we had almost given up hope and would have settled for just a phone call to let us know she was safe and being well cared for."

Then the following day she was spotted by Jenny's brother down by the muddy, flood-ravaged Bishop's Wharf.

"Tessa was clean, not at all muddy, so she must have been dropped off there by whoever took her," says Geoff.

What with all the publicity - thanks to Paul, son of Cygnet landlady Lynda Kennelly, who printed out the 'missing' posters - Geoff reckons Tessa was a "hot dog".

"Too hot to handle for the thief, too recognisable" he says.

Thankfully, Tessa was well treated and came home just a little thinner but with a tail going 50 to the dozen at the sight of Geoff and Jenny.

Now from found to lost....

Does anyone know where Lucy is?

The Alsatian-cross slipped her collar in sheer terror on November 11 between 6pm and 7pm when 'late, late fireworks' were let off near her home in Whin Road, York. She has been missing 12 days as I write so if you can help, ring owner John Griffith on 705752 or Patricia Green Greenwood on 706359 and put a wag into this tale.

u NEWS that Magna, Britain's first science adventure park, is to be built at Rotherham got me thinking. It will cost £37 million, a chunk of which will come from Lottery cash.

Some in York may remember the project's chief executive, Stephen Feber, as a former director of York's museums.

During his short term of office Mr Feber devised a costly, but unsuccessful bid for Lottery money to revamp York Castle Museum.

The Heritage Lottery Fund was concerned that many exhibits seemed to have been discarded in favour of visuals and giant TV screens, and the bid was politely rejected.

Even today staff at the Castle Museum still ruefully remember, and puzzle over, Mr Feber's published interview with this very newspaper the day after the bid's failure. This bore the intriguing headline 'Museum's Staff Delight At Lottery Bid Result'. But all they got was the bum's rush.

I am told that part of the Magna project will be a giant airship that visitors can enter to examine... air.

My council mole blabbed to me that Mr Feber would possibly be the ideal person to lead this part of the project... especially if the air is hot!