No news like Canada's but, in a quiet week:
Fashion:Beth and Brian Willis of Newcastle have put the hair of their dead dogs to use. They made themselves a woolly pullover (sweater) each from it. When their two dogs passed away, the first being a Samoyed twelve years ago, they had kept hair combed over the years from their carpets. That made into yarn for her sweater.It's white because Samoyeds are white. His is brown, from their Swedish Lapphund who died in 2002. They got the idea from seeing Princess Diana wearing a dog hair stole at Cruft's Dog Show.Brian said "Some people think it's disgusting but it seems normal to us.It's pretty much waterproof. I have always got a sweat on by the time I get from the bus to the shops" [I do wonder about this story. Were the dogs, perhaps, bald when buried?
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Weather: A Bewick's swan is refusing to join the rest of his flock of 270 on the 2,500 mile annual migration to Arctic Russia, where the temperature is minus 12C. He arrived at Slimbridge Wildfowl Trust, in the West of England, in October.Julia Newth, a swan officer, said the recent cold weather was delaying his departure [ What? There's ice on the runway in Slimbridge? Or he thinks if it feels cold here it must be really bad in the Arctic?
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History: A play in a theatre in Coventry, about the Blitz of German bombing of that city in WW2, was halted by the discovery of an unexploded WW2 German bomb near the theatre.
Crime: A pickpocket on a London bus took a woman's purse. The victim is a junior government minister in the Justice Ministry.The witness standing behind her on the bus, who gave chase, was an off-duty police detective. The thief ran into a shopping centre where he collided with a crowd of men who had just arrived. They were all police crime prevention officers, coming to the shopping centre to give advice to shoppers about guarding against pickpockets etc.He was detained by security guards who'd joined the chase when they saw him running in and formally arrested by the pursuing detective. He has pleaded guilty.
Healthcare: A Polish contractor has been fired by Great Ormond Street Hospital, London,after being caught having sex with a vacuum cleaner. He claimed that his 'vacuuming underwear' was 'a common practice in Poland' but officials decided that multiculturalism has its limits and dismissed him anyway.
Road safety: Officials in the East End of London have plans to put padding around lamp posts in their streets because of an alarming increase in people getting injured by walking into them when engrossed in text-messaging.
Armed police, latest:A civilian control room operator was shot by a firearms officer when the policeman was demonstrating his Glock pistol during a 'firearms awareness course'.The policeman was 'unaware' the gun was loaded. The operator was not seriously hurt.[Score so far:There are 6,700 police in Britain who are authorised to carry firearms, when demanded.In the period January 2006 to September 2007 they managed to shoot 7 members of the public but 5 of their own staff.]
Dog training: A woman has been fined for failing to control her dog. It was on a BBC TV programme when it nipped a dachsund. Crew beat it off with their microphones. The show was 'Dog Borstal', a programme about training your dog .
Road crime: Speed cameras on a motorway near Portsmouth do not cover the overtaking 'fast' lane but only the three other , slower, lanes where drivers don't, of course, drive fastest.The Hampshire Road Safety Partnership which installed the cameras said that 'health and safety concerns stopped [us] putting a camera mast on the central reservation'
Housing: The best apartment in a block of six in St James' Square, London is for sale 'off plan' the block being not yet started. The price is £120 million (c$240 million). The block will have cycle racks, 'to comply with regulations', as well as a vehicle lift to take cars to the underground car park.
Animal welfare: A visitor invited to fetch a bottle of wine at Shirley Neely's house on the island of Jersey opened a refrigerator to find 75 tortoises inside. Wrong 'frig: Mrs Neely runs a tortoise sanctuary and has found that wrapping the animals in towels and leaving them in a refrigerator at a constant 4C to 6C is the best way to have them hibernating.
Art:Years ago somebody who was a friend of a worker at a fish and chip shop,gave him a fish preserved in formaldehyde to display in the restaurant's takeaway.The fish has now been valued in excess of £150K (c $300K). The then unknown somebody was Damien Hirst, now a famous modern artist.The shop owner now has the fish listed on the shop's price list,as POA (price on application).
Law Reform: Parliament is to repeal laws concerning the East India Company ( on the doubtful ground that the Company ceased to exist in 1874), a law permitting householders to order brass bands to move away from their homes (penalty for refusal £2), laws relating to the governance of workhouses, and the Servants' Characters Act 1792 which makes it an offence for a servant to impersonate their master or mistress or for anyone to give a false character reference for a servant. (Damn,it was useful, was that
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See? Almost as exciting as Canada, but with warmer weather
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Gang ?
