SIXTY two year old Val Marks is very attached to her gas cooker.

The Daily Express explains that Val, from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, owns one of Britain's oldest gas cookers ...because it is the last surviving memento of her late mother Grace.

Val took possession of the New World 42 appliance when Grace died in 1999 aged 79, and has since cooked more than 20,000 meals with it.

Grace apparently bought it for £38 in 1959 and Val commented: “It’s the only thing I’ve got left of my mum’s belongings.

“People say I should get a new one but I say ‘No, it’s my memories of my mum’. It was my mum’s pride and joy; she was always cleaning it.”

THE Daily Mail shines the spotlight on great-grandmother Barbara Peters, from Halifax in Yorkshire, who on her 80th birthday has become the country's oldest ballet dancer, having passed a top exam at the Royal Academy of Dance in London.

She told the paper that she had just received a text from the Academy - “It told me I had passed with merit the grade seven exam, and have become the country’s oldest ballet dancer. I am thrilled.”

Barbara took the 55-minute practical test last month, 58 years after her last ballet exam.

“Ballet has kept me fit and raising my leg a metre high to place my foot on the barre was easy. I also held my leg straight out front and side on at a 90 degree angle for a few seconds.”

She added: “I can only do two pirouettes on the trot now but still do cartwheels, though I haven’t done the splits for the past 10 years.”

BRITS may be able to celebrate the May 19 wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at St George’s Chapel in the grounds of Windsor Castle by spending more time in the pub, says The Guardian.

It seems the government is considering allowing bars and other licensed premises to delay calling time until 1am on May 18 and 19.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd, who has launched a four-week consultation on extending the licensing hours in England and Wales, commented: “The royal wedding will be a time of national celebration, and we want everyone to be able to make the most of such a historic occasion.

“I hope that this relaxation of the licensing hours will allow people to extend their festivities and come together to mark what will be a very special moment for the country.”

HOT water bottles are coming back into fashion, reports the Daily Mail.

A new report says that the switch to old-fashioned hot water bottles is because families are trying to save on heating bills during the cold winter months following price rises by the big energy companies.

The report by internet firm Studio says that sales are the highest since the 1960s.

A Studio spokesperson said: “Households are using the same methods of keeping warm as their grandparents used in post-war Britain.”

ACCORDING to new research, half of Britain's university students have never changed a light bulb!

An article in the Daily Express adds that six out of ten have never paid a bill and a third have no idea how to sew on a button.

The survey of 1,500 students by online community The Student Room and the University of East Anglia also revealed that other simple tasks which are a mystery to thousands include cleaning a bathroom, doing a food shop alone or washing laundry.

CONGRATULATIONS to Martin Appleton-Clare, who according to the Daily Mail, has been declared World Pie Eating Champion for the third successive year.

Apparently he ate a standard-sized pie in 32 seconds beating last year's time by 13.5 seconds, in the annual event which takes place at Harry's Bar in Wigan.

The fastest woman was Vicky Lindley whose time was one minute and 30 seconds.