Has anyone elses’ world ended yet? Mayan hasn’t! BOOM!!!!!
You’ll probably think I’m quackers!
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!
If you’ve got Seoul you’ll enjoy this!
A beautiful video showing the fireworks in Seoul, celebrating the start of 2013 – enjoy!
Cheap Flights?
So now that the Christmas period is over and we’re all gradually returning to work, the thing we normally look forward to is the next holiday. If you’re thinking of looking for a good online deal, remember – if it seems too good to be true, it probably is! Take a look at this video and you’ll know exactly what I mean if you’ve ever booked to fly with one of the budget airlines!
A word of warning though, some readers may find some of the language offensive!
2012 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys have prepared a 2012 annual report for my blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mount Everest in 2012. This blog got about 8,300 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 14 years to get that many views.
Merry Christmas one and all
IT’S CHRISTMAAAAASSSSS!!!
As we prepare to sit down to our festive meal, I’d like to wish all my readers a very merry Christmas and a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year – let’s hope it’s not an unlucky number for all of us and Santa left you something nice in your stocking!!!
Eat, drink and be merry – but everything in moderation of course!
The answer is blowing in the wind!
So the annual sprout-eating ritual approaches. Every Christmas, this one vegetable divides opinion – some of us love them, some of us hate them, but eating them can have some, er, embarrassing consequences…
Sprouts, along with onions, beans and dairy products, are hard to digest in the stomach and small intestine because our bodies can’t produce the enzymes needed to break down some of the chemical components they contain.
However, the presence of flatulence seems to be the least of our worries!
Last Christmas, a man from Ayrshire was hospitalised after eating too many Brussels sprouts! The reason? Well this controversial vegetable contains Vitamin K, a chemical the body uses to promote blood clotting and while it does this, it also counteracts anticoagulants (used in blood-thinning medication).
This poor man was prescribed anticoagulants after suffering heart failure in 2011, and his dose was monitored weekly to prevent blood clotting. However, when his blood started to clot close to Christmas last year and he was admitted to Hospital, the doctors could not understand why his medication was not keeping his blood thin until he told them he’d been eating lots of sprouts!
So there’s your excuse … if you don’t want to eat sprouts with your festive turkey, instead of saying you don’t like them, just tell your host that they’re bad for your health!!!
Phew!!!
Has anyone elses’ world ended yet? Mayan hasn’t! BOOM!!!!!
Not Santa’s Grotto … but the Pope’s Grotto!
There used to be a pub in Twickenham called the Pope’s Grotto. About 100 yards from where I lived, it played a huge part in my life since the age of 17 until I moved to Glasgow in 1996. I met my ex-husband there (probably best to skip over that!) and it is somewhere I will always find someone I know, even to this day!
In recent years it has been transformed from a friendly local pub to a modern hotel, now called the Alexander Pope, with a reputation for good food and a family friendly atmosphere. It just isn’t the same but this picture, taken c.1981, is just how I remember it! One main memory that stands out for me is that it was THE place to be during the power cuts in the 1970’s. Instead of sitting at home in the dark, people flocked to the pub in their droves where candles provided the lighting and there was a “blitz type” spirit and atmosphere that seemed somehow magical. I also remember it was a meeting place for many on Christmas lunchtime – the chance to catch up with friends before heading home for the obligatory turkey dinner!
Happy memories indeed. I hardly recognise the place these days but one of my customer’s has asked me to write a piece on their blog about a job they’ve just done there which made me very nostalgic for those simpler, happier times!
Don’t drink and drive
With just 7 sleeps to go before Santa makes his annual visit, it is probably a good time to give him a gentle reminder to take milk instead of sherry at all the millions of homes he’s getting ready to visit. It wouldn’t do to be caught drunk in charge of a sleigh now would it?!?
PS. If you ate Rudolph’s carrot instead of all those mince pies you’d shift some of that weight off your belly too!!!
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