News Round Up
by Patrick O'Connor
AMUSING little tale in the Daily Mail about 62 year old Lamenda Kingdon who mentioned to a fellow plane passenger how much she was looking forward to visiting Spain only to be told: “Not on this plane, you won’t.”
To her dismay, Lamenda discovered that instead of heading to Granada, her flight was taking her to the Caribbean island of Grenada!
It appeared that air miles travel firm Avios had mistakenly booked her on the 10 hour haul across the Atlantic instead of a short hop to Spain.
Mrs Kingdon said: “I looked at the ticket and it did indeed say Grenada. I had noticed the departure and arrival times were vastly different – but I presumed that had something to do with the time difference.”
At a scheduled stop in St Lucia, she was put on a flight back to Gatwick.
Twenty three year old actor Kieran Jones who has appeared in the film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, has flown into the record books – by becoming the shortest man in history to fly solo, says the Daily Mirror.
And Kieran's achievement comes after receiving only 15 hours of tuition over two weeks. Four foot one inch Kieran flew at 1,000ft for 90 minutes in a small red microlight plane from Old Sarum Airfield near Salisbury in Wiltshire, which had been adapted so he could control it with his hands – he couldn't reach the pedals with his feet.
Kieran said: “Because I only weigh 6st I go up like a rocket. It was such an amazing feeling knowing that I was in control of the plane.”
His instructor Raymond Proost said: “It’s very unusual for someone to fly solo so early. Because of his size it is not something you would think is possible.”
The Daily Express notes another worthy achievement, this time by seven year old Sonny Kilkenny, from Wrenthorpe in West Yorkshire, who has bettered Barcelona footballer Lionel Messi's goalscoring record by netting 106 times in just 50 games.
Argentine striker Messi netted 91 goals in a year but Sonny, who is a Manchester United fan, scored in every game he has played for his club Wrenford Rangers, collecting around 12 trophies along the way including a Golden Boot trophy, Player's Player award and last season winning the Manager's Player of the Year award.
His dad David commented: “He was aware of Messi's record and wanted to beat it. He has worked incredibly hard and we are really proud of him.”
The BBC reports that John Lennon's first home, in Liverpool, has been sold for £480,000 at an auction held at the famous Cavern Club.
The house in Newcastle Road, Wavertree, was where the former Beatle lived from birth in 1940 until when he was five.
Auctioneers said there had been a bidding war for the three-bedroomed property which had been given a guide price of between £150,000 and £250,000. It is only a few streets away from Penny Lane, made famous by The Beatles.
We Brits are renowned dog lovers so perhaps the Daily Mirror story that teacher Sara Assayed spent £1,500 to save a starving stray from the streets of Kuwait should not come as a surprise.
Twenty nine year old Sara, from Cardiff, found George cowering under a car and decided to bring him to Britain after finding it impossible to safely re-home him in the Middle East.
She said: “He was skin and bone, but he offered me his paw asking for help. I couldn’t leave him. He is very happy but I think the weather may have been a bit of a shock.”
Reference lists:
The Express(www.express.co.uk)
Daily Mail (www.dailymail.co.uk)
Daily Mirror ((www.mirror.co.uk)
BBC (www.bbc.co,uk)