Anyone who has paid a visit to my bathroom will know that I am particularly fond of a rubber duck!   I used to have a much larger collection but an episode with a cleaner and a plastic carrier bag meant that the originals were lost to the bin men!  That said, I now have another 6 wee friends taking pride of place beside the bath!

My collection is small fry though!  Did anyone see the story of the huge rubber duck that “swam” under Tower Bridge in December?  This was a stunt organised by an online bingo site to publicise its £250,000 “bursary” to help make more Britons have fun.  The giant 50ft-tall rubber duck went along the River Thames, past HMS Belfast, The Tower of London and under a raised Tower Bridge, much to the amusement of tourists along the riverbank.

And this week another specimen has been spotted floating through Darling Harbour in Australia to mark the opening of the Sydney Festival.  Looking very similar to the London visitor, but with more plastic coverage over the hovercraft-like platform.

The organisers of the Festival say that the duck has been popping up in various sites around the world since 2007, although this is the first I’ve read about it.  If it wants to join us on the Clyde in Glasgow next as part of the 2014 Commonwealth Games celebrations, that would be ducking marvellous!