News Round Up
by Patrick O’Connor
ACCORDING to The Sun, 58 year old Richard Lane has been reunited with the wallet he lost 35 years ago – complete with all its contents except for £15 in cash.
Mr Lane thought the wallet was stolen as he played squash at a leisure centre in 1978 in his home town of St Ives, Cambridgeshire and gave up hope of ever seeing it again when he moved to Evesham in Worcestershire.
As well as the money, the wallet held his driving licence, gym and union membership cards, and a payment plan for a new TV.
But it was found in a wall cavity by builders working at the centre and returned to Richard after a public appeal.
The demise of Margaret Thatcher has produced a massive response from the media and the Daily Mirror tells us that a TV station in Taiwan had to apologise after showing footage of the Queen while reporting Thatcher’s death.
The Mirror said that Taiwanese CTi Cable used a headline saying ‘Margaret Thatcher Dies of Stroke’ whilst showing two clips of the Queen shaking hands with the public.
And Thailand’s Channel 5 were also forced to say sorry for showing actress Meryl Streep’s picture alongside a biography of Thatcher.
As I remarked on several occasions we Brits love our animals, especially dogs.
A story in the Daily Mail revealed that a dog trapped underground for four days in a drainage tunnel in Dorney, Buckinghamshire, was rescued when its owner hired a digger to get her out.
Lulu the Jack Russell disappeared down the unused pipe when her owner Gina Kaiser took her for a walk.
Ms Kaiser was advised by the RSPCA that if she could hear Lulu barking the likelihood was she would find a way out of the disused pipe. Lulu barked non-stop for four days and kept herself alive by drinking the trickle of water collected at the bottom of the pipe.
But then the local fire service stepped in and used the digger, cutting equipment, spades and shovels to smash their way into the drain and lifted Lulu free.
Ms Kaiser said: “The fire service have been brilliant, it shows there are some really good people about.”
Be more creative when it comes to hiding your valuables.
A story in the Daily Express reports that that the favourite place for people to hide their valuables is the sock drawer – where burglars look first!
Half of home owners in a poll admitted keeping their valuables in “secret” places where thieves would most likely find them.
Number one spot was the sock drawer (13 per cent), followed by on top of the wardrobe or beneath the bed (both nine per cent), or under the sink (six per cent).
Gareth Lane, head of home insurance at Confused.com which carried out the research, said: “We need to get smarter when protecting our possessions.”
Beware! A story in the Mail claims that couples who communicate using Facebook could be putting a strain on their relationship.
Apparently Oxford University psychologists found husbands and wives who kept in touch using social media had less satisfying marriages.
They surveyed the types of social media used by 3,500 couples which included Facebook, emails, texts, tweets and instant messages.
Dr Bernie Hogan, from Oxford Internet Institute, suggested marital disharmony could be triggered by the stress and time pressure of constantly maintaining so many different threads of communication.
You’re having a laugh!
Amusing little tale in the Sun about 50 year old Maggie McElroy who returned to her home in Towyn, North Wales to find her garden covered with six foot of foam – by a neighbour.
The prank was played by a pal who got revenge for a joke she played on him when she for turned his garden into a zoo full of stuffed animals when he went on holiday.
Maggie said: “I thought I’d left my washing machine on until I heard giggling. But I’ll get him back.”
Three cheers for Ginger, the one-eyed cat who walked five miles home through snowdrifts over 10 days after escaping from a vets.
The Mirror says that the cat had slipped out of his cage while being taken for treatment by his owner but after being lost in a blizzard he crossed at least 30 main roads to find his way back home.
Owner Jayne Middleton said: “I thought I was seeing things. Not only has he made his own way home but he has done it in the hardest weather conditions.”
Reference lists:
The Express(www.express.co.uk)
Daily Mail (www.dailymail.co.uk)
Daily Mirror ((www.mirror.co.uk)
The Sun (www.thesun.co.uk)