HERE'S another example of how dog-crazy we Brits are.
According to the Daily Star, Helen Turner (44) from Burnley in Lancashire, spent £4,000 for a first birthday party for her Chihuahua dogs Salvador and Purdy.
She hired a clown and the event also included face painting, three birthday cakes and even a dwarf.
Helen said: “I wanted to celebrate in style. I chose a Mexican theme because that’s where they originate from. I’d planned all the party games, booked señoritas to serve doggy canapes, planned out the decorations and ordered three cakes.”
Where have all the bell-ringers gone? A survey by BBC local radio has revealed that the centuries-old tradition is under threat because of a shortage of new recruits and it is getting more difficult to persuade newcomers to take the practice up, especially amongst people under 21.
Tower captain at St James Garlickhythe in London Dickon Love said: “It's the best of form of heavy metal; it's a big loud noise, it keeps you fit, there's a competitive element as well. And it's a very social thing to do - after each practice without fail you can find us down the local pub.”
Pete McCoy, the tower captain at St Mary's Church in Walkley in Sheffield said teenagers today have more distractions than when he was young.
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Thirty seven year old recruitment consultant Brett Smitheram, from Chingford in Essex, is the new Scrabble World Champion.
The BBC reports that he beat fellow Briton Mark Nyman in three straight rounds during the contest's final in Lille in France to collect the £5,873 prize money.
His highest scoring word was BRACONID, meaning a parasitic wasp, which earned him 176 points.
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As part of the celebrations marking the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London, a giant wooden replica of the city was set on fire on the River Thames.
The Guardian says that onlookers crowded along the river to watch the 120-metre-long (394ft) wooden model being set alight.
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The sting was definitely in the tail for Graham Andrew, from Reepham in Norfolk, who spent 120 hours building the world's largest ever jigsaw puzzle only to find that four pieces were missing.
The Daily Mail tells us that he had almost completed the 33,600 piece puzzle when he discovered the gap. Now he's got to wait for the missing parts to be specially cut and sent from Spain before it can be glued together.
The puzzle is titled Wildlife and shows a jungle scene including lions, elephants, orang-utans, crocodiles and rhinos.
To break the current world record of completing a 32,000 piece jigsaw, Graham enlisted the help of more than 200 people to finish the puzzle which was being built at a community centre in Reepham.
He explained: “I was worried about pieces going missing because there were just so many of them. We actually had people come back to us and say they found pieces in their shopping bags, what must have happened is that they fell in while everyone was working on the puzzle.”
He hopes to present the completed puzzle to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, where he works as a children's entertainer.
Reference list:
The Guardian (www.guardian.co.uk)
Daily Mail (www.dailymail.co.uk)
Daily Star (www.daily star.co.uk)
BBC (www.bbc.co.uk)